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BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 


BY 

PRESTON  GIBSON 


ILLUSTRATED 
WITH  PHOTOGRAPHS 


NEW  YORK 
THE  CENTURY  CO. 

1918 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/batteringbocheOOgibsrich 


Headquarters  U.  S.  Marine  Corps, 

Office  of  the  Quartermaster, 

Washington,  D.  C. 

Mr.  Gibson  presents  a  very  graphic  pic- 
ture of  scenes  and  incidents  along  the  French 
front  and  of  the  dangers  that  attend  the 
work  of  the  personnel  of  the  Ambulance 
Corps,  of  which  he  formed  a  part. 

Particularly  interesting  is  his  description 
of  the  splendidly  heroic  conduct  of  the  gal- 
lant French  at  all  times  and  of  their  unselfish, 
uncomplaining  and  stoical  attitude  in  the 
face  of  the  greatest  suffering  their  country 
has  ever  experienced.  It  should  be  an  incen- 
tive and  example  to  every  American  who 
goes  to  help  them. 

Charles  L.  McCawley. 
Brigadier  General,  Quartermaster, 
U.  S.  Marines. 


Preston  Gibson  received  the  French  Cross  of  War  with  the 
following : 

21°  Division  d'lnfie. 

au  Q.G.  le  ler  Decembre  1917. 

ETAT-MAJOR 

CITATION  A  L'ORDRE  DE  LA  DIVISION. 

Extrait  Ordre   No.   204 

LE    GENERAL    Commandant   la    21e.    Division   d'Infanterie 

cite  a  1'  Ordre  de  la  Division 

les  militaires  dont  les  noms  suivent: 

SERVICE    DE    SANTE 
Section  Sanitaire  Automobile  Americane  No.  7 
GIBSON,  Preston,  Volontaire  Americain. 

"  Volontaire  americain  admirable  de  courage  et  de  sang 
"  froid.  S'est  particulierement  distingue  devant  St. 
"  Quentin  et  dans  l'Aisne  par  son  devouement  et  son 
"  intrepidite  a  l'occasion  de  nombreuses  evacuations  en 
"  zone  dangereuse." 

Le  General  DAUVIN 
Commandant  la  21e  Division  d'lnfie. 
Signe:  DAUVIN. 


Translation. 
21st.  Division  of  Infantry 


ETAT-MAJOR  at  Headquarters,  December  1,  1917 

CITATION  TO  THE  ORDER  OF  THE  DIVISION 

Extract.  Order  No.  204 

THE  GENERAL  Commanding  the  21st.  Division  of  Infantry 

cites  to  the  Order  of  the  Division  the  following  soldiers: 

SERVICE  DE  SANTE. 
AMERICAN   SANITARY  AUTOMOBILE    SERVICE  No.   7. 
GIBSON,  Preston,  American  Volunteer 

"  American  volunteer,  admirable  for  his  courage  and  cool- 
ness. He  particularly  distinguished  himself  before  St. 
Quentin  and  in  the  Aisne  by  his  devotion  and  his  fear- 
lessness on  the  occasion  of  numerous  evacuations  in 
dangerous  places." 

General  DAUVIN 
Commanding  the  21st.  Division  of  Infantry 
Signed:     DAUVIN. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Preston  Gibson Frontispiece 

FACING 
PAGE 

A  camouflaged  bridge  over  the  Somme  .      .        8 

Poilu  with  gas-mask  and  respirator  in  dug- 
out of  a  third-line  trench 9 

A  lookout  in  a  trench  observation  post  .      .      24 

An     improvised  headquarters  on  the  Aisne 
front 25 

A  "  Saucisse,"  used  for  observation  before 
the  attack  at  Chemin  des  Dames  ...      40 

French  defenses  thrown  up  on  the  Aisne 
plateau 41 

Barbed     wire    over    third-line    trench    at 
Chemin  des  Dames 60 

First-line  communication  trench,  Chemin  des 
Dames 61 

Observer    near    Malmaison,    Chemin    des 
Dames 72 

Just  before  firing  a  small  gun  from  the  sec- 
ond line  trench,  Chemin  des  Dames  .      .      73 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PACING 
PAGE 

Carrying  wounded  through  shelled  village 
of  Vailly  after  attack  at  Chemin  des 
Dames 88 

French  poilus  receiving  the  Crois  de  Guerre, 
after  the  Battle  of  Malmaison     ...      89 

German  prisoners  used  as  stretcher-bearers 
after  the  slaughter  at  Malmaison  .      .      .104 

Mass  being  held  underground  near  Mal- 
maison     105 

(These    photographs    are    used    by    courtesy    of    The 
XVIIIth  Century  Shop) 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 


SCAtf        ot     nms 


1.  The  St.  Quentin  region.  The  author  was  here 
during  the  attack  of  August  20-26,  1917. 

2.  The  famous  Chemin  des  Dames  —  now  occupied 
in  part  by  American  troops  —  where  the  author  was 
during  the  attack  of  October,  1917. 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 


PART  I 

PARIS.  Arriving  there  in  July,  1917, 
one  is  struck  by  the  great  number  of 
English  and  American  officers.  The  cafes 
are  crowded,  as  are  the  hotels.  There  are  a 
number  of  private  motors  and  a  great  many 
taxicabs. 

The  town  itself  is  absolutely  closed  at  9 :30 
p.  m.  There  is  no  dancing  and  one  sees  few 
French  people  among  the  pleasure  seekers, 
as  the  whole  nation  is  in  mourning.  Soldiers 
abound  everywhere.  It  is  seldom  that  one 
sees  a  young  man  in  civilian  clothes,  and  then 
it  is  because  he  has  been  wounded  and  brought 
back.  The  taxicab  drivers  all  look  like 
rather  young  Rip  Van  Winkles. 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

When  one  goes  to  the  Madeleine,  that 
beautiful  church,  one  is  absolutely  awed  and 
silenced  in  one's  heart  on  observing  the  hun- 
dreds, even  thousands,  of  children,  girls,  mid- 
dle-aged women  and  old  women,  all  in  mourn- 
ing. One  hardly  ever  sees  a  woman  except 
in  black.  It  dawns  upon  one's  sensibility 
for  the  first  time  that  out  there  a  few  miles 
from  Paris  are  the  sons,  brothers  and  hus- 
bands of  these  women,  those  that  are  alive, 
and  when  one  is  determined  or  has  deter- 
mined to  do  one's  part  a  curious  feeling  of 
perhaps  dread  or  fear  or  apprehension  is  ex- 
perienced as  one  realizes  that  in  a  few  days 
one  will  be  in  the  midst  of  what  has  brought 
about  the  sorrow  of  the  world. 

SUBLIMITY    OF    THE    MASS 

As  one  looks  at  an  old  lady  of  75  bowed 
with  grief  and  sorrow  —  she  has  given  five 
sons  to  the  conflict  and  they  are  all  lying  un- 
der tiny  wood  crosses  near  the  city  of  Meaux 
4 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

by  the  swift  moving  Marne  —  one's  thinking 
cap  comes  down  close  over  one's  forehead, 
and  the  sublimity  of  the  mass  is  greatly  en- 
hanced by  the  hush  in  the  hearts  of  those  who 
are  kneeling  in  silent  meditation  and  adora- 
tion. 

The  streets  are  gay.  The  shop  windows 
are  brilliant  with  every  device  to  please  the 
eye  of  the  traveller.  Girls,  pretty  girls, 
abound  on  the  streets,  and  the  soldiers  that 
are  back  on  leave  are  especially  gay  —  a 
gayety  of  a  rather  hysterical  sort,  for  they 
have  left  those  frightful  scenes  only  for  two 
or  four  days,  and,  I  may  phrase  it,  as  they 
are  coming  in  they  are  going  out. 

There  have  been  many  amusing  incidents 
so  far  in  connection  with  the  language.  An 
American  hired  a  small  victoria  at  the  rail- 
way station  on  arriving  in  Paris  and  was 
going  through  to  another  railway  station. 
He  called  out  to  the  driver  to  stop  and  asked 
a  wounded  soldier,  "  Ou  est  la  guerre?  " 
5 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

which  means  "  Where  is  the  war  ?  "  instead 
of  saying  "  Ou  est  le  gave?  "  which  means 
"  Where  is  the  railway  station  ?  "  Where- 
upon the  soldier,  thinking  that  he  was  mak- 
ing fun  of  the  war,  became  perfectly  furious 
and  began  to  swear  at  him  in  French. 

The  American,  being  absolutely  certain  of 
his  good  French,  kept  repeating,  "  Ou  est  la 
guerre?  Ou  est  la  guerre? "  whereupon 
the  soldier  tapped  him  on  the  head  with  his 
crutch.  A  great  crowd  collected  as  the 
American  continued  to  call  out,  "  Where  is 
the  war  ?  "  instead  of  "  Where  is  the  rail- 
way station  ?  "  A  policeman  finally  under- 
stood his  mistake  and  he  was  allowed  to 
proceed. 

FRENCH    WHOLLY    APPRECIATIVE 

The  appreciation  of  the  French,  women 
and  men,  of  the  coming  of  the  Americans  is 
really  beautiful.     French  soldiers  go  out  of 
6 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

their  way  to  be  polite.  French  girls  in  the 
shops  and  everywhere  else,  all  have  a  pleas- 
ant word  and  smile.  But  this  sentiment 
does  not  exist  among  the  women  only  for  the 
foreigner  who  has  come  to  do  his  bit.  It 
exists  in  the  heart  of  the  French  girl  for  any 
and  every  soldier. 

In  the  parade  on  the  Fourteenth  of  July, 
when  the  troops  came  marching  down  the 
Champs  Elysees,  in  every  rifle  was  a  tiny 
American  flag  —  a  great  sea  of  men  and 
American  flags  coming  down  the  loveliest 
boulevard  in  the  world.  The  soldiers  were 
simply  deluged  with  flowers  thrown  by  girls 
all  along  the  sidewalks,  and  one  very  pretty 
girl  standing  near  the  Travelers'  Club  was 
throwing  kisses  to  the  soldiers  as  they  went 
by.  One  youngster  in  the  ranks  called  out, 
"  Oh,  that 's  no  good !  You  're  too  far 
away."  Whereupon  she  ran  out  through  the 
crowd,  threw  her  arms  around  him,  kissed 
him  and  ran  back  again. 
7 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

HAVE    UNDAUNTED    SPIRIT 

It  is  that  spirit  of  youth  and  joy  in  spite 
of  all  the  sadness  and  sorrow  that  has  kept 
France  intact  and  has  enabled  her  soldiers 
to  do  and  fight  and  bleed  and  die  until  the 
soil  of  the  whole  country  is  saturated  with 
the  blood  of  her  best  men.  That  day  9,000 
men  marched  bearing  their  tattered  stan- 
dards before  them.  One  woman,  stretching 
out  her  arms,  cried :  "  Merci,  merci  pour 
nous,  les  civils."  And  the  crowd  took  it  up, 
calling,  "  Merci,  merci" 

The  medals  for  the  day  had  Washington 
and  Lafayette  and  the  date  July  4,  1776,  on 
one  side,  July  14,  1789,  on  the  other.  In 
the  afternoon,  when  the  patriots  of  Alsace, 
2,000  of  them,  went  and  paid  tribute  to  the 
statue  of  Strasburg,  they  nearly  covered  the 
beautiful  figure  with  roses  and  lilies,  but  alone 
and  symbolic  over  her  heart  was  draped  the 
Stars  and  Stripes,  our  flag,  the  American 
8 


■ 


Poilu  with  gas-mask  and  respirator  in  dugout  of  a 
third-line  trench 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

flag.  It  made  one's  heart  beat  faster  and 
somehow  brought  a  lump  in  one's  throat. 
France  has  an  ally  in  us  that  she  can  love 
without  conditions. 

Those  who  can  speak  French  a  little  are 
constantly  asked  questions  by  those  who 
can't,  such  as  "  Why  do  they  call  so  many 
dogs  in  France,  '  lei  *t  "  One  hates  to  tell 
them  the  reason  is  that  M  ici  "  means  "  here," 
and  of  course  in  calling  the  dog  they  say 
"Here,  here ! " 

For  a  time  there  was  a  certain  criticism 
of  the  great  number  of  English  officers  in 
Paris,  but  that  is  now  entirely  changed  and 
the  criticism,  if  any,  has  been  directed  toward 
the  great  number  of  American  officers  in 
Paris.     That,  too,  is  being  changed. 

There  have  been  gross  and  vile  exaggera- 
tions of  the  amount  of  drinking  done  by  the 
officers  of  all  nations  in  Paris,  and  I  feel 
that  I  should  go  on  record  as  stating  that  if 
there  were  any  drunken  American  officers  in 
9 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

Paris  I  did  n't  see  them,  and  I  saw  a  great 
number. 

CHARGES    OF    EXCESSES    ARE    LIES 

There  may  have  been  one  or  two  men 
drunk,  and  this,  of  course,  for  mongers  of 
scandal  and  those  who  walk  with  their  bellies 
on  the  ground,  would  be  sufficient  cause  to  de- 
clare that  the  whole  American  army  was 
drunk.  But  the  statement  that  such  conduct 
is  common  is  a  base  and  unwarranted  lie. 
There  is  no  finer  officer  in  the  world  than  the 
American  officer,  and  certainly  no  braver  sol- 
dier, as  has  been  proved  in  the  past.  And  he 
who  tries  or  attempts  by  any  means  to  take 
away  from  the  man  who  is  doing  his  part  over 
there  his  good  name  should  be  court-mar- 
tialled  and  shot. 

Going  to  the  front  for  the  first  time  is  like 
the  first  experience  of  a  child  at  the  Hippo- 
drome. One  finds  one's  self  at  first  amazed 
and  more  or  less  awed  by  the  magnitude  of 
10 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

conditions  and  one  finds  one's  self  looking  in 
every  direction  to  see  everything  one  can  of 
the  whole  show. 

The  train  goes  along  through  a  very  lovely 
country,  following  the  Marne,  and  then  turns 
north  toward  the  famous  Somme.  One  sees 
from  the  window  attractive  villages.  There 
is  no  sign  of  war.  Suddenly  one  comes  to 
Soissons,  and  on  alighting  one  sees  for  the 
first  time  the  Machiavellian  hand  of  the  hein- 
ous Hun.  The  beautiful  cathedral  is  shat- 
tered, the  houses  are  in  ruins,  homes  are  deso- 
late and  broken. 

Proceeding  from  there,  one  motors  out  to- 
ward the  front,  passing  through  tiny  villages, 
all  of  which  have  been  razed  to  the  ground. 
It  is  my  first  glimpse  of  the  dreadful  devasta- 
tion and  I  am  beginning  actually  to  see  what 
I  have  heard  only  bits  of.  Every  one  is  busy. 
Little  gray  cars  rush  to  and  fro;  there 
are  messengers  on  motorcycles;  artillery 
wagons,  long  trains  of  them,  going  slowly 
11 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

by;  and  a  stream  of  camions,  ambulances, 
soldiers. 

ROADS  REPAIRED  CONSTANTLY 

One  is  first  struck  by  the  wonderful  condi- 
tion of  the  road.  Thousands  of  Moroccans 
and  French  are  constantly  filling  every  tiny 
hole  as  soon  as  it  appears,  and  though  the 
traffic  all  day  and  all  night  is  absolutely  con- 
tinuous, yet  the  roads  are  kept  up. 

Our  camp  is  in  a  wood;  about  twenty 
tents;  very  picturesque.  The  sunlit  Somme 
winds  itself  about  the  camp.  Our  tents  are 
painted  to  represent  foliage  so  the  Boche  air- 
planes cannot  locate  them.  One  man  has 
painted  trees  and  a  stream  on  his  tent  and  a 
young  girl  reclining  on  the  bank.  One 
could  only  imagine  that  the  idea  he  had  was 
that  if  a  Boche  did  locate  his  tent,  on  seeing 
the  picture  he  would  be  too  excited  to  drop  a 
bomb  straight. 

And  now  I  hear  for  the  first  time  the 
12 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

boom  of  the  guns  of  the  heavy  artillery  about 
four  miles  away  from  the  camp,  about  eight 
miles  from  the  third  line.  It  was  an  inter- 
mittent firing,  boom,  boom,  only  every  half 
hour  or  so.  It  was  not  as  impressive  as  I 
had  anticipated.  It  was  only  ominous  of 
what  was  to  be  later. 

I  was  given  two  gas  masks  and  a  hel- 
met and  was  ordered  up  to  the  poste  de  se- 
cours. 

It  rains  continuously.  To-night  there  is 
a  frightful  storm,  but  above  nature,  sublime 
in  their  individuality,  the  hungry  guns  hold 
the  conquest  of  the  air.  Nature  becomes 
more  wonderful  as  one  is  close  to  it.  The 
trees,  a  few  front  of  our  tents  are  such  good 
friends  for  they  protect  us  and  shield  us  from 
the  enemy's  gaze.  The  Somme  keeps  our 
bodies  fresh  and  clean  and  strong  and  our 
mouths  cool  after  the  dust  and  grime  of  the 
labor  laden  roads,  and  the  grass  and  woods 
give  us  rest  and  comfort.  The  blue  sky 
13 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

though  is  most  essential  for  an  offensive,  for 
if  it  rains  our  aero  eyes  are  blinded,  we  can- 
not communicate  with  our  artillery  and  it  is 
difficult  to  proceed. 

I  am  sent  up  to  the  poste  de  secours,  just 
a  little  brick  building  about  a  mile  and  a  half 
from  the  third  line,  which  in  turn  is  a  thou- 
sand yards  from  the  firing  line.  August  20 
I  see  my  first  dead  man  of  the  war.  They 
bring  him  in,  shot  through  the  breast,  and 
they  place  him  in  the  room  next  to  where  we 
eat.  It  is  hot.  The  flies  fly  back  and  forth 
through  the  cracked  wooden  door  from  this 
corpse  to  our  bread  and  jam.  They  could 
have  as  well  left  him  in  the  yard,  but  every 
one  wishes  to  house  the  dead.     Why  ? 

ORDERED    TO    THE    THIRD    LINE 

At  2:45  a.  m.  I  hear  the  field  telephone 

ring  and  I  am  ordered  to  the  third  line.     My 

comrade,  who  knows  the  road,  appears,  and 

we  start  out  of  the  gate,  turn  to  the  right 

14 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

over  the  hill,  then  to  the  left,  straight  for 
the  trenches,  over  a  road  bathed  in  moonlight 
and  in  the  midst  of  the  frightful  thunder  of 
artillery. 

How  it  impresses  one,  the  blazing,  the  deaf- 
ening roar  of  the  heavy  and  light  artillery  1 
We  pass  the  last  observation  tree,  turn  to  the 
right  and  fly  along  a  road  screened  from  Ger- 
man trench  eyes  only  by  a  latticework  of 
boughs  most  of  which  are  broken  or  blown 
down.     The  road  is  filled  with  shell  holes. 

We  arrive  at  the  third  line.  Here  is  the 
dugout.  I  go  down ;  the  steps  are  all  as  per- 
fect as  if  it  were  Marble  House,  and  we  de- 
scend into  the  oblong  room.  There  are  a 
surgeon,  a  man  on  a  stretcher,  quiet  with  just 
a  flicker  of  life  when  he  sees  me ;  shelves  upon 
which  are  candles,  bandages,  bottles. 

We  take  him  up.     When  we  reach  the  top 

of     the     steps     one     of     the     brancardiers 

(stretcher  bearers)    drops  his  end   and  the 

man  topples  over.     Not  a  complaint,  not  a 

15 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

murmur.  They  pick  him  up  and  put  him  in 
the  car.  His  leg  is  badly  shot,  below  the 
knee.  I  give  him  a  cigarette  and  he  is  grate- 
ful. They  tell  him  to  cheer  up,  that  he  will 
soon  be  at  the  hospital.  He  smiles,  points  to 
his  leg:  "  Ca  ne  fait  rien,  cest  la  guerre, 
Monsieur.     Cest  tout." 

LIGHTED    BY    STAR    SHELL 

I  start  along  the  road.  Suddenly  a  great 
white  light  looms  up  to  the  left  about  300 
yards  away,  and  I  think  I  am  finished,  but  it 
is  only  a  star  shell.  These  are  made  of  silk 
with  four  lighted  balls  at  each  corner  and 
have  a  tiny  parachute.  They  are  shot  up 
into  the  air  with  a  large  revolver  and  hang  in 
the  air,  throwing  light  all  around  for  a  great 
distance.  They  are  used  nearly  every  second 
by  both  sides  to  see  if  there  is  any  activity  in 
No  Man's  Land  or  elsewhere  along  the 
trenches.  After  getting  over  my  fright  I 
felt  not  unlike  Paul  of  Tarsus.  They  are 
16 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

very  beautiful  and  tale  telling,  these  star 
shells. 

Of  course  a  German  observer  had  seen  the 
car,  but  one  cannot  drive  fast  with  wounded. 
It  was  a  moment  to  give  one  a  thrill.  The 
moon,  the  blazing  of  the  French  guns  about 
300  yards  away,  the  wondrous  star  shells  like 
great,  constant  comets  of  light,  the  glutton- 
ous gases  sweeping  their  brooms  of  death,  the 
silence  of  the  dugout,  the  stillness  of  the 
wounded,  the  scraping,  whistling,  screaming 
shrapnel  shells  overhead,  the  firecracker  rat- 
tling of  the  mitrailleuses,  the  glare  of  the 
signal  rockets,  the  stupendous  disembowel- 
ling roar  of  the  artillery  miles  to  the  rear, 
the  hush  of  death  —  all,  all  were  electrify- 
ing, appalling,  uplifting ! 

A  shell  fell  about  200  yards  to  the  left.  I 
turn  the  bend  and  drive  away  from  the  lines. 
There  appears  a  tall,  gaunt,  handsome  figure 
of  a  man  on  an  equally  tall,  magnificent  horse. 
His  cloak  enshrouds  him  and  the  steps  of  his 
17 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

horse  seem  as  measured  as  the  thoughts  of 
the  rider.     The  moon  strikes  him  aslant. 

He  hails  me  and  asks  if  the  road  has  been 
shelled.  I  reply,  "  A  little."  He  inquired 
quickly,  "  Many  holes  ?  "  I  reply,  u  A  few, 
sir."  He  seems  thoughtful  for  a  moment. 
A  star  shell  goes  up  quite  near  us.  He  is 
thinking  —  of  a  woman,  perhaps,  somewhere. 
"  It  is  late,"  he  says.     "  I  go." 

The  sun  was  waking.  He  must  be  there 
with  his  battery  in  place  before  dawn.  No 
one  can  pass  over  this  road  from  sunrise  to 
sunset.  He  gives  the  order  "  Forward ! " 
The  men  speak  quietly  to  the  horses.  Shrap- 
nel breaks  over  our  heads  and  my  stranger  of 
the  night  moves  toward  so  many  that  seek 
his  death. 

I  must  confess  that  a  queer  feeling  of  se- 
curity comes  over  one  when  one  drives  away 
from  the  third  line  trench  for  the  first  time, 
away  from  that  cauldron  of  blood  and  mud, 
and  though  I  was  only  about  a  mile  from  the 
18 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

dugout  and  the  Boche  shrapnel  was  scream- 
ing a  message  of  destruction  over  my  head, 
yet,  though  the  feeling  of  security  is  droll,  it 
is  true. 

The  roaring  of  the  French  guns  as  one 
passes  the  batteries  on  the  way  back  from 
the  front  is  like  the  constant  pealing  of  the 
most  terrible  thunder,  simply  disembowelling 
nature.  It  never  ceases,  and  appalls  one 
by  its  force,  strength  and  frightfulness. 
As  they  go  over  one's  head  toward  the  Boche 
trenches  it  is  difficult  to  realize  that  the  sing- 
ing shells  are  wending  their  day  to  kill  and 
wound  men. 

One  passes  a  constant  stream  of  ammuni- 
tion wagons,  men,  ambulances,  all  coming  and 
going.  Overhead  areos  and  balloons  are 
thick  in  the  sky  and  within  a  stone's  throw 
there  is  a  wireless  mast  made  of  bamboo  poles. 
Every  house  and  barn  is  completely  gutted, 
with  only  a  few  walls  standing,  and  those 
with  great  rents. 

19 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

The  Boches  are  constantly  shooting  at 
our  areos  with  their  anti-aircraft  guns  and 
one  can  see  often  as  many  as  fourteen  or  fif- 
teen puffs  of  black  smoke  clustered  around 
one  of  our  'planes.  The  Boche  anti-aircraft 
shells  have  only  black  smoke.  Each  puff 
hangs  in  the  air  and  stays  there  a  long  time 
before  disappearing.  Every  few  minutes  in 
the  woods  the  artillery  signals  with  rifle  shots 
to  the  aeros  circling  about  and  the  aeros  in 
reply  give  the  German  range. 

It  was  not  long  before  I  was  at  the  hos- 
pital. 

The  next  night  the  moon  was  like  a  great, 
well  washed  and  shining  silver  plate  edged 
with  gold.  It  hung  in  a  cloud  of  rarest  blue, 
surrounded  by  twinkling  stars.  The  sky  was 
bright  now,  the  moon  our  friend  as  well  as 
our  enemy,  and  one  could  see  the  German 
guns  clearly  as  they  fired  in  turn. 

Soon  I  was  again  at  the  dugout. 


20 


PART  II 

IT  is  planned  to  take  the  city  of  St.  Quen- 
tin,  which  lies  about  eight  kilometers 
from  where  we  are.  The  attack  is  scheduled 
for  to-morrow. 

The  field  telephone  rings.  The  cathedral 
at  St.  Quentin  is  on  fire.  The  flames  are 
high  in  the  air.  We  expect  the  attack,  but 
the  wind  is  from  the  wrong  direction.  For 
the  past  month  they  have  been  bringing  up 
gas  cylinders,  but  each  day  the  wind  has  been 
blowing  directly  in  our  faces.  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  it  will  change  to-morrow.  The 
roads  are  filled  with  camions,  Chasseurs, 
Moroccans  and  Zouaves,  all  attacking  troops 
going  up. 

We  had  a  visit  to-day  from  an  American 
who  came  out  to  observe.  He  was  rather 
21 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

a  comic  looking  person  whose  face  gave  up 
the  struggle  between  the  mouth  and  the 
apple  of  Adam.  He  left  just  before  the 
attack  to  make  his  report  in  Paris. 

Boche  'planes  were  coming  over  in 
droves.  One  got  directly  above  us,  evi- 
dently taking  photographs  of  some  of  the 
artillery  batteries.  It  must  have  been  cir- 
cling for  half  an  hour  when  like  a  meteor 
out  of  a  white  cloud  about  10,000  feet  up 
came  a  French  speed  aero  and  flew  directly 
toward  the  Boche  aero. 

The  German  tried  to  dip  and  duck  and 
turn,  but  the  Frenchman  followed  him  and 
pounced  upon  him  from  above.  There  was 
a  roar  of  the  Boche  mitrailleuse.  The 
Frenchman  was  maimed.  Then  both  ma- 
chines turned  over  and  over  in  the  air  and 
fell  in  the  wood  just  near  us.  It  was  a  nerve 
racking  sight  and  thrilling. 

We  rushed  over  and  found  the  machines 
entangled  one  with  the  other,  the  two  Boches 
22 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

and  the  two  Frenchmen  mangled  and  burned 
beyond  recognition.  What  a  brave  deed 
and  how  little  it  seemed  to  count!  Yet  by 
giving  their  lives,  the  French  fliers  probably 
saved  at  least  two  entire  French  artillery 
batteries,  which  would  have  been  bombed 
and  destroyed  before  dawn  if  the  German 
had  got  back  with  his  photographs. 

The  French  are  a  glorious  race.  They 
never  weaken  and  when  they  go  into  Paris  on 
leave  they  do  not  loaf  around  doing  nothing, 
but  at  once  go  back  to  their  trade,  watch- 
makers, chauffeurs  or  tailors  —  all  work 
until  it  is  time  for  them  to  travel  again  the 
long  road  to  the  trenches. 

We  are  now  quite  near  St.  Quentin  with 
telephone  connections  to  our  advanced  poste 
de  secours.  As  the  Germans  and  French 
have  a  perfect  system  of  listening  in  on  a 
telephone  by  means  of  an  instrument  which 
is  stuck  in  the  ground  and  which  enables 
you  to  hear  conversations  going  along  on 
23 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

the  other  side  of  the  trenches,  all  villages 
near  the  lines  have  been  renamed.  The 
street  names  are  comic. 

Here  in  this  village,  a  mile  from  the  firing 
line,  we  have  the  street  of  Rheins,  the 
street  of  Lyons,  the  street  of  Paris;  it  is 
also  necessary  that  curious  numbers  and 
odd  codes  be  employed.  Thus  when  send- 
ing for  small  ammunition  a  message  will 
sound  something  like  this :  "  Send  to  Paris 
street  five  baskets  of  grapes,"  which  would 
mean  five  wagon  loads  of  small  ammu- 
nition. "  Send  one  small  handbag  to 
Rheins  street "  would  mean  one  small 
automobile  at  once.  "  Send  three  large 
trunks  by  express  to  Soissons  street,"  would 
mean  send  three  large  automobiles  quickly, 
and  so  on.  The  detail  of  the  war  is  almost 
greater  than  the  war  itself. 

In  the  afternoon  of  August  22  I  went  up 
to  our  last  observation  tree  through  a  ceme- 
tery    whose     appearance     was     harrowing. 


A  lookout  in  a  trench  observation  post 


*  .   , , 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

Every  grave  had  been  opened  by  the  Ger- 
mans and  the  little  chapel  razed  to  the 
ground.  In  some  of  the  underground  mau- 
soleums the  Germans  had  lived  and  there 
were  German  newspapers  strewn  here  and 
there.  Then  there  were  graves  out  of  which 
the  Boches  had  thrown  the  French  bodies, 
putting  some  of  their  own  killed  in  their 
places. 

I  ascended  the  ladder  of  the  observation 
tree  and  found  established  aloft  a  tele- 
graph operator  with  powerful  lenses  and  in- 
struments. He  let  me  look  through  his 
glasses.  Within  half  a  mile,  directly  below 
me,  were  the  French  trenches  and,  only  a 
little  further  beyond,  the  German  lines.  I 
could  see  the  towers  of  the  cathedral  at  St. 
Quentin. 

It  was  a  great  sight  and  the  spectacle  was 

made  more  impressive  by  the  whizzing  of  the 

German  shells  breaking  in  every  direction, 

the  screaming  of  the  French  batteries  and 

25 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

the  soft  purr  of  the  French  aeros,  much 
smoother  and  faster  than  the  Germans', 
overhead.  One  skilful  German  aviator  came 
in,  swept  so  low  as  to  be  out  of  the  im- 
mediate range  of  the  French  guns,  went 
straight  for  a  balloon,  and  destroyed  it 
and  got  back  safely,  flying  almost  along  the 
ground. 

Before  writing  concerning  a  night  which 
enthralled,  amazed,  thrilled  and  stunned  me, 
I  must  say  a  word  or  two  about  my  impres- 
sions gathered  from  men  everywhere  I  have 
been  —  poilus,  Captains,  Generals,  ambu- 
lance men,  sergeants,  nurses,  cooks,  lookout 
men,  stretcher  bearers.  It  is  this:  France 
is  brave,  but  is  tired. 

France  needs  men,  men  for  her  soil,  her 
industries,  her  homes,  her  army.  And  we 
need  an  American  army,  not  on  Long  Island, 
not  in  South  Carolina,  not  near  Paris,  not  in 
the  army  zone  near  Soissons,  but  actually  in 
and  on  that  Lane  of  Blood  which  sweeps 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

from  St.  Quentin  to  the  Vosges,  in  the 
trenches.  But,  as  an  English  officer  said, 
"  When  Fritz  meets  the  Sammies  hell  will 
break  loose." 

The  wind  is  favorable,  the  attack  is  for 
to-night.  It  is  very  dark  and  inky.  You 
cannot  even  see  the  end  of  the  fender  in  front 
of  the  car.  There  it  but  very  little  traffic, 
the  main  road  to  the  front  is  quiet,  there  is 
little  firing  and  the  two  lines  of  trenches 
seem  to  be  getting  a  well  needed  rest.  A  few 
Boche  star  shells  light  up  my  car,  but  that 
is  all. 

I  reached  the  poste  de  secours  and  got  out. 
Of  course  I  had  on  my  helmet  and  carried 
both  gas  masks.  This  is  a  very  bad  gas 
sector.  It  was  a  close  night,  the  wind  blow- 
ing gently  toward  the  German  lines.  I  went 
into  the  dugout  for  a  moment.  Here  were 
literally  dripping  surgeons  and  stretcher- 
bearers,  soaked-in-blood  heroes,  men  and 
boys,  with  great  holes  in  their  heads,  arms 
27 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

and  legs,  or  shot  through  the  body,  al] 
silent  in  their  suffering.  By  the  dim  candle- 
light the  surgeons  went  about  their  task 
ploddingly  and  methodically. 

I  soon  had  my  load  and  started  back 
along  the  same  road  to  our  base  hospital. 
An  hour  later  I  was  again  at  the  base. 
There  were  no  more  wounded  to  be  trans- 
ported. All  was  quiet.  I  saw  two  men 
standing  on  top  of  the  third  line  dugout, 
so  climbed  up  and  discovered  they  were 
a  General  and  his  aid.  We  smoked  a  cig- 
arette and  talked  of  Paris. 

It  was  the  dawn  of  August  24,  1917, 
about  a  quarter  of  one  in  the  morning.  I 
must  have  stood  there  half  an  hour  when 
by  the  light  of  occasional  star  shells  I 
saw  stealing  over  the  meadow,  silent,  death 
dealing  and  grim,  in  its  task,  the  gas,  gas, 
gas.  To  the  right  and  left,  as  far  as  one 
could  see,  great  masses  of  vapor  went  slowly 
toward  the  Boche  lines.     It  was  like  a  cloud 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

of  gray-blue  chiffon  as  borne  by  the  wind  it 
sought  the  lives  of  those  who  could  neither 
advance  nor  retreat.  And  so  it  went  on 
and  on  till  it  hung  like  a  pall  over  the  enemy. 
Then  resolved  itself  into  a  great  cloud,  wave 
after  wave,  bearing  death  and  the  greatest 
agony. 

Suddenly,  as  though  God  Himself  had 
rent  the  heavens  with  His  hand,  there  blazed 
forth  from  800  guns  a  fiery  roar  that  seemed 
as  if  hell  had  broken  loose.  The  General 
remarked  to  his  aid  as  he  looked  at  his  watch, 
"  It 's  1 :15.  The  wind  is  good."  The  tir 
de  barrage  (curtain  of  fire)  had  begun, 
throwing  a  curtain  of  fire  in  front  of  the 
Boche  front  line  and  a  second  curtain  of  fire 
back  of  the  Boche  third  line,  so  that  they 
could  neither  advance  nor  retreat,  while  they 
breathed  the  gas  between. 

Now  the  star  shells  in  thousands  lit  up  the 
sky.  It  was  a  great  sight.  Back  of  me  the 
75s  and  155s  were  sending  their  shells  over 
29 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

my  head  and  in  front  and  to  the  right  were 
thousands  of  star  shells  over  the  trenches, 
and  hand  grenades  exploding  and  enemy  ar- 
tillery dropping  bombs  and  shells  near  the 
road. 

Wounded  were  now  being  brought  in  and 
French  caught  in  their  own  gas.  Here  for 
the  first  time  I  saw  a  gas  sufferer ;  the  effect 
is  terrible.  The  gassed  men  cannot  get  their 
breath;  they  cough,  spit  and  vomit  blood. 
When  I  reached  the  hospital  with  my  first 
load  the  men  had  suffered  great  agony. 
But  there  was  no  murmur  or  complaint.  It 
is  a  horrible  death,  that  of  a  gassed  man. 
But  only  four  of  the  affected  died,  we  got 
them  to  the  hospital  so  efficiently. 

The  gas  was  shut  off  about  5  A.  M.  and  the 
artillery  continued  all  day  and  into  the  night. 
Then  the  order  "  Comrades,  over  the  top ! " 
was  given  and  out  they  came  with  bayonets 
and  hand  grenades  —  rifles  are  seldom  used 
any  more  in  charges;  they  are  practically 
30 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

obsolete  except  to  hold  a  bayonet.  The 
main  reason  for  this  is  that  an  individual 
rapid-fire  gun  —  handled  by  one  man  —  or 
a  similar  gun  handled  by  two  men  is  much 
more  effective.  They  shoot  from  300  to  700 
a  minute.  One  could  take  16  men  and  four 
rapid-fire  guns  and  be  more  effective  than  a 
whole  section  of  infantry  firing  rifles.  Out, 
over,  through  and  into  the  barbed  wire  they 
went,  cutting,  hewing,  slashing  their  way  to 
No.  1  trench,  and  they  took  it  by  storm. 
The  Boches  were  finished  by  the  gas.  This 
continued  until  4?  P.  M.  Then  our  curtain 
of  fire  was  lifted. 

At  5  A.  M.  August  25,  the  Boches  started 
a  tir  de  barrage,  but  the  French  held  on. 
This  lasted  all  day.  The  Boches  attempted 
a  counter  from  their  second  line  that  night 
with  hand  grenades,  so  we  had  our  job  cut 
out  for  us  and  we  worked  for  nearly  ninety 
hours  without  a  wink  of  sleep,  all  of  us,  and 
just  coffee  and  bread,  and  our  boots  on. 
31 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

Here  I  must  say  a  word  concerning  our 
American  Lieutenant  Marcel  Du  Cassee. 
He  stood  outside  of  that  dug-out  all  night 
and  all  day  during  the  entire  attack  with 
shrapnel  bursting  over  him  constantly  and 
directed  the  loading  of  the  wounded  into  the 
cars,  helping  the  stretcher-bearers  himself. 
It  was  due  mainly  to  his  alertness,  courage 
and  magnificent  spirit  that  we  were  enabled 
to  evacuate  the  wounded  so  rapidly.  He  was 
justly  cited  by  the  French  General  for  his 
splendid  work. 

Our  French  Lieutenant,  De  Rose,  did  his 
share  and  if  the  war  has  been  of  no  benefit 
to  me  in  any  other  way  it  has  at  least  made 
me  many  firm  friends,  whom  I  have  seen  and 
admired  in  good  days  and  in  bad,  and  none 
of  these  friendships  do  I  cherish  more  than 
that  of  this  splendid  soldier,  Lieutenant  De 
Rose. 

The  last  fellow  I  took  to  the  hospital  was 
shot  in  the  side  of  the  head.  He  was  very 
handsome,  about  twenty-five  years  old,  with 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

a  wonderful  clear  skin,  a  fine  figure,  square 
shoulders,  small  waist  and  fine  hands.  He 
lay  quite  still  as  we  put  him  in  the  ambulance 
and  I  bolstered  up  his  head  with  my  overcoat. 
He  just  looked  at  me  as  a  dog  looks  at  one 
when  you  are  binding  its  wound. 

I  knew  the  road  quite  well,  and  though  a 
stream  of  great  wagons  and  men  were  going 
up  —  fodder  for  the  men  and  for  the  guns 
—  I  went  very  fast  and  helped  carry  him  into 
the  hospital  myself.  He  lay  quite  still,  a 
great  red  blotch  on  the  linen  around  his  head. 
I  leaned  over  him  and  whispered :  "  You  '11 
be  all  right  now;  this  is  the  hospital."  He 
opened  his  big  eyes  and  looked  at  the  dingy 
lamp  flickering  over  his  head,  at  the  nurse, 
the  doctor  and  me.  "  Bon  Dieu!  "  he  mur- 
mured. 

Then  they  started  to  undress  him,  but  he 

would   not   let   them   take   off  his    coat.     I 

guessed  why.     So  I  took  the  picture  case  out 

of  his  pocket  and  put  it  in  his  hand.     He 

33 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

tried  to  smile.  They  took  off  his  coat  and 
began  to  unwind  the  bandage.  As  they 
pulled  the  cloth  away  the  blood  poured  out. 

He  sat  half  way  up  then  and  said  to  me: 
"You  brought  me  here?"  I  nodded.  "If 
I  can  only  see  her,  you  know ;  you  know  it 's 
France  and  her,  and  if  you  come  back  — 
if  it  had  not  been  for  you  — " 

"  Oh,  no,"  I  said,  "  it 's  just  part  of  my 
job.     I  *11  come  in  and  see  you." 

I  did  in  a  few  days.  She  was  kneeling  by 
his  cot  holding  his  hand.  I  was  happy  and 
went  up  to  him.  "  I  am  so  glad  you  are  go- 
ing to  pull  through.  That  was  a  bad  hole," 
I  said. 

"  I  am  going  to  be  all  right.  Where  is 
the  American  who  brought  me  here?  I 
would  like  to  see  him  again,"  he  replied. 

"  I  do  not  know,"  I  said  and  went  out. 

The  next  day  began  the  Boche  counter  at- 
tack, starting  with  the  mustard  gas.  This 
is  sent  over  in  shells  which  make  no  noise 
34 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

whatever  compared  with  shrapnel.  They 
drop  in  a  field  or  near  a  trench,  open  like  a 
cauliflower  and  exude  a  gas  which  affects  the 
eyes  so  that  they  water  terrifically  and  itch. 

You  at  once  put  on  your  gas  mask,  and 
if  you  are  wise  you  keep  it  on.  The  Boches 
have  a  system  by  which  they  first  send  over 
this  mustard  gas,  then  when  your  eyes  pain 
and  itch  so  you  are  tempted  to  lift  the  mask 
they  fire  shells  of  deadly  poisonous  gas,  and 
in  breathing  this  you  are  killed.  They  also 
have  a  gas  which  it  is  practically  impossible 
to  detect,  which  is  sent  in  the  same  way  and 
which  is  odorless  and  tasteless.  It  is  very 
poisonous.  The  shells  in  which  it  is  car- 
ried open  like  a  lily  pad. 

The  wearing  of  a  gas  mask  gives  one  a 
feeling  of  suffocation  mingled  with  a  curious 
sense  of  a  lurking  danger.  The  bombs  drop 
so  quietly  and  give  out  their  charge  of  cer- 
tain death  so  gently  that  one  sometimes  finds 
oneself  looking  on  all  sides  for  these  German 
35 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

gas  bombs  and  even  thinking  of  lifting  one's 
mask  to  see  how  the  stuff  smells.  Several 
have  tried  it,  and  men  continue  to  try  it 
through  curiosity.  There  is  a  man  who 
makes  little  wooden  crosses  for  them. 

A  great  many  French  are  caught  by  gas 
liberated  by  their  own  side.  Nothing  up  to 
this  time  had  impressed  me  so  vividly  as  gas. 
Injuries  of  men  to  their  arms,  faces,  legs  or 
heads  did  not  seem  comparable  with  the  fate 
of  those  who  lay  silently,  coughing  once  in  a 
while,  lethargic,  dormant,  practically  dead, 
wounded  by  this  unseen  spectre. 

We  assist  the  surgeon  in  bringing  many 
of  them  to.  He  cuts  the  artery  inside  the 
elbow  and  the  blood  comes  out  perfectly 
black.  I  take  the  wrist  of  one  and  bend  it 
backward  and  forward  until  the  flow  be- 
comes red.  Then  a  bandage  is  put  on  and 
the  man  is  hurried  to  the  base  hospital. 

About  dusk  the  Boches  began  to  let  out  an- 
other link  of  their  batteries,  more  and  more 
36 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

screaming  "  I  come !  I  come ! "  and  the 
wounded  were  brought  in  in  great  numbers. 
Following  this  the  Boches  attacked  with  the 
bayonet  on  the  right  near  where  the  English 
joined  our  lines,  but  they  were  held  and 
driven  back.  This  lasted  another  twenty- 
four  hours,  when  the  Boches  retreated. 

In  my  last  load  was  a  pottu  called  Louis. 
I  did  not  intend  to  relate  the  incident,  but 
the  dog  has  made  it  impossible  for  me  not  to. 

He  was  brought  in  among  the  last.  It 
was  very  bad;  gas  and  shrapnel.  His  leg 
was  bleeding  terribly  from  a  cut  artery.  It 
seemed  impossible  to  stop  it.  I  was  advised 
to  wait  a  little  before  taking  him  to  the  hos- 
pital, as  the  shelling  was  intense ;  but  seeing 
he  would  die  from  loss  of  blood  if  I  waited, 
I  of  course  did  what  any  one  else  would  do. 

In  a  jiffy  we  had  him  in  the  car  and  I  went 

like  hell.     The   road  was   well  lit   by   star 

shells.     I  put  on  the  accelerator  and  flew, 

and  in  twenty-four  minutes  he  was  on  the 

37 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

table,  his  artery  tied  and  they  thought  he 
would  live. 

I  saw  him  a  few  days  afterward  and  he 
said :  "  My  business  is  gone,  my  brothers 
are  killed  and  I  have  nothing  to  give  you." 
Then  he  took  the  chain  off  a  chair  and 
handed  me  his  dog,  who  had  never  left  him, 
who  was  at  Verdun,  the  Marne,  the  Meuse 
and  the  Sorame.  I  nearly  choked,  thanked 
him  and  refused  to  accept  the  gift. 

"  Here,"  he  said,  pointing  to  the  new 
Cross  of  War  on  his  breast,  "  that  is  mine. 
He  is  yours.  I  know  all  about  what  you  did, 
my  comrade."     I  went  out. 

The  attack  was  over.  Hundreds  of 
wounded,  dying  and  dead;  artillery  which 
had  never  ceased;  mud,  blood  and  cold. 
One's  heart  is  wrung  by  the  stoicism  and 
the  heroism  of  these  splendid  French. 


PART  III 

A  FEW  days  afterward  Gen.  Petain  came 
out  to  review  Gen.  Dauvin's  division, 
which  was  now  en  repos.  We  were  in  the  lit- 
tle town  of  Nesle  and  they  were  refilling  the 
ranks  of  the  division. 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  misstatement 
about  the  time  men  are  in  the  trenches;  in 
fact,  any  one  who  has  a  friend  at  the  front 
always  speaks  of  him  as  being  in  the  trenches, 
when  as  a  matter  of  fact  he  may  not  be  there 
at  all. 

A  division  goes  up  and  attacks.  It  loses 
artillery,  men,  officers,  stretcher  bearers, 
cooks,  sergeants,  gas  men,  hand  grenade 
throwers,  &c.  When  the  attack  is  completed 
and  it  has  done  its  task  that  division  is  re- 
placed by  another  fresh  divison,  which  goes 
39 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

in  and  takes  the  place  of  the  first  in  the 
trenches.  The  division  which  has  made  the 
attack  goes  back  several  miles  from  the  line 
and  there  proceeds  to  refill  the  gaps.  This 
takes  sometimes  two  or  three  months.  It  all 
depends  on  what  the  losses  have  been. 

During  this  time  the  soldier  has  little  to 
do,  and  if  in  a  year  he  is  in  more  than  three 
attacks  he  is  doing  more  than  most  of  the 
army.  The  time  he  usually  spends  in  the 
trenches  is  from  twenty  to  thirty  days  at  a 
time,  so  that  in  twelve  months  he  would  not 
be  actually  in  the  trenches  over  seventy  days. 

It  was  a  beautiful,  sunlit  Sunday  after- 
noon in  September.  The  remnants  of  the 
band  were  playing  in  the  square  and  Gen. 
Dauvin  was  going  among  his  soldiers. 
There  is  a  wonderful  comradeship  between 
the  French  officer  and  the  soldier  and  little 
line  of  discrimination  is  drawn.  An  officer 
does  not  hesitate  to  offer  a  soldier  a 
cigarette  and  stand  and  talk  to  him,  so  that 
40 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

the  French  army  is  really  like  one  great 
family.  When  the  officer  calls  upon  the  sol- 
dier to  do  something  the  order  is  executed 
with  the  greatest  spirit  of  enthusiasm. 

There  have  been  other  armies  in  which 
officers  have  been  extremely  overbearing,  and 
I  am  told  there  have  been  instances  in  which 
a  great  many  officers  have  been  killed  by  the 
enemy  —  and  otherwise ;  but  this  state  of 
things  has  never  existed  in  the  French  army. 
The  new  American  army  officer  may  be  very 
prone  to  feel  his  authority,  and  if  such  cases 
develop  the  sooner  the  new  officer  realizes  that 
the  soldier  is  more  important  than  himself 
the  sooner  he  will  have  a  force  willing  to 
fight  with  him  and  under  him. 

The  Division  then  moved  to  Neuilly  St. 
Front  and  one  afternoon  Gen.  Petain  drove 
up  into  the  square  with  an  aide,  followed  by 
two  empty  cars.  The  French  commanding 
General  is  always  followed  by  two  other  cars, 
so  in  case  anything  happens  he  can  immedi- 
41 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

ately  get  from  one  into  another.  It  is  a  jail 
sentence  for  a  chauffeur  if  his  car  fails  owing 
to  his  direct  negligence. 

Another  rule  along  this  same  line  is  that 
if  a  soldier  is  hit  by  a  bomb  dropped  from 
a  German  airplane  and  wounded,  after  he 
comes  out  of  the  hospital  he  is  then  sentenced 
to  fifteen  days  in  jail.  This  may  seem  cu- 
rious, but  of  course  it  is  a  very  wise  pro- 
vision, since  if  a  German  airplane  is  circling 
around  overhead  and  a  man  is  fool  enough 
to  stand  out  in  the  open  looking  at  it,  when 
there  are  shelters  to  get  into,  and  he  is  hit 
by  an  airplane  bomb,  he  is  necessarily  in- 
capacitated for  no  good  reason.  It  used  to 
be  common  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  for 
a  great  crowd  of  men  to  stand  out  watching 
an  airplane  fight  and  for  a  number  of  them  to 
be  struck  and  put  out  of  business  for  the  time 
being. 

A  short  while  before  this  near  the  front  I 
was  standing  in  a  dugout  while  an  aeroplane 
42 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

battle  was  going  on,  when  a  Frenchman  went 
out  past  me  and  said  he  wanted  to  watch  it. 
I  told  him  that  there  was  a  great  deal  of 
shrapnel  breaking,  but  he  said,  "  Oh,  that's 
nothing,"  and  stood  about  twenty  yards  in 
front  of  me,  I  being  perfectly  protected  and 
looking  up  at  the  fight. 

As  he  was  about  to  speak  a  piece  of  shrap- 
nel about  as  big  as  a  saucer  simply  cut  his 
head  off  as  he  stood  facing  me,  just  as 
though  an  axe  had  done  it.  That  cured  me 
from  ever  watching  an  airplane  battle  with 
shrapnel  breaking,  unless  it  was  part  of  my 
duty. 

It  is  rumored  that  Gen.  Petain  and  Gen. 
Dauvin  have  arranged  for  an  attack  which  we 
are  to  go  into  as  soon  as  the  division  is  able. 
We  shall  see. 

Some  of  us  now  had  two  days  in  Paris, 
and  it  was  a  joy  to  sit  in  a  chair  again  be- 
fore a  table  with  a  tablecloth,  a  plate  and  a 
knife  and  fork.  The  situation  in  Paris  had 
43 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

become  very  interesting.  The  work  of  the 
secret  service  has  been  simply  amazing. 
They  have  rounded  up  a  great  number  of 
spies  and  practically  cleaned  up  the  city. 

There  is  a  story  that  some  American  offi- 
cers who  had  met  a  few  of  the  very  attractive 
French  girls  (of  the  secret  service)  and  had 
loosened  their  tongues  were  dumbfounded 
later  to  find  out  that  what  they  said  had  been 
reported  to  Washington.  Their  mistake  was 
natural,  with  a  new  army  not  understanding 
the  conditions  of  this  modern  war,  and  it 
only  took  two  or  three  instances  of  this  kind 
to  close  everybody's  mouth. 

We  hear  of  terrible  bread  riots  in  Milan; 
that  1100  women  and  children  were  killed, 
and  we  hear  that  that  was  why  a  Milanese 
regiment  on  the  front  surrendered  without  fir- 
ing. The  whole  Second  Italian  Army,  which, 
it  is  said,  was  made  up  of  anarchists,  social- 
ists and  pro-German  suggestion,  surrendered 
without  a  shot  being  fired,  and  about  65,000 
44 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

of  the  Third  Army  did  likewise.  Brought 
about  by  German  propaganda  entirely. 
That  situation,  of  course,  has  come  out  with 
the  accusations  against  Caillaux,  but  the 
hand  of  Clemencau  is  so  strong  that  he  is 
sure  to  handle  the  situation  for  the  benefit  of 
the  French  people  rightly  and  fearlessly. 

Gen.  Pershing  is  lauded  on  all  sides  by  the 
French  and  English ;  his  appointment  was  un- 
questionably a  wise  selection. 

We  return  to  the  front,  this  time  to  the 
Chemin  des  Dames,  by  motor.  We  arrive  at 
Meaux,  the  scene  of  some  of  the  hard  fight- 
ing of  the  Battle  of  the  Marne.  Here  are 
hundreds  and  hundreds  of  graves,  all  dec- 
orated with  red,  white  and  blue  flags.  The 
cathedral  is  magnificent ;  only  one  gray  tower 
is  destroyed. 

I  begin  to  realize  now  what  the  war  ac- 
tually means  to  the  individual  soldier.  It  is 
not  going  out  to  the  front  that  one  minds. 
It  is  not  the  lack  of  good  food.  It  is  not 
45 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

the  cold  and  the  rain.  It  is  not  never  sleep- 
ing in  a  bed.  It  is  not  that  one  is  on  duty 
twenty-four  hours  out  of  twenty-four,  sub- 
ject to  call  at  any  time  during  the  day  or 
night.  It  is  not  the  being  hit  with  shrapnel. 
It  is  not  the  wound  of  the  flesh.  But  it  is  the 
gnawing  of  one's  heartstrings  for  the  one  one 
has  left  behind,  the  wife,  the  sweetheart,  the 
mother,  the  sister. 

It  is  the  longing  for  home,  whether  it  is  a 
shack  on  a  side  street,  a  room  over  an  inn  or 
a  palace  at  Versailles.  And  the  gnawing 
seems  greater  if  home  is  across  that  great 
stretch  of  3,000  miles  infested  with  deep  sea 
monsters  seeking  to  destroy  you.  It  is  the 
longing  for  that  place,  whether  it  is  in  the 
mountains  of  Vermont,  the  plains  of  Cali- 
fornia or  the  sweet,  slumberous  Southland. 

When  within  about  five  miles  of  the  third 

line  one  sees  all  the  woods  on  either  side 

of  the  road  piled  with  ammunition,  and  since 

the  forests  would  hold  no  more  the  fields  had 

46 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

great  blocks  of  it,  covered  by  canvas.  This 
continued  for  miles  and  miles  all  the  way 
up  to  the  third  line. 

The  two  months'  preparation  for  this  at- 
tack at  the  Chemin  des  Dames  cost  in  am- 
munition about  one  hundred  million  dollars, 
to  be  used  in  about  ten  days,  when  the  bom- 
bardment was  to  begin.  The  feeling  is  in- 
describable, but  it  does  make  your  heart  beat 
a  little  bit  faster  as  you  look  at  these  inani- 
mate, huge  masses  of  ammunition  and  realize 
that  soon  they  will  be  wending  their  way, 
smashing  through  German  men,  rocks  and 
dugouts,  doing  their  part  in  the  deliverance 
of  the  world  from  this  despotic  demon. 

The  Ambulance  Corps  was  taken  over  by 
the  American  army.  We  were  ordered  in  to 
Paris.  It  was  with  a  feeling  of  real  regret 
that  I  found  myself  again  going  in,  as  I 
knew  the  attack  might  come  any  day  and  I 
did  want  to  be  a  part  of  it. 

My  heart  was  really  heavy  and  Paris 
47 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

seemed  heartless  and  dull,  but  I  had  deter- 
mined from  the  moment  that  we  were  ordered 
to  Paris  to  make  every  effort  personally  to 
get  out  again.  The  town  seemed  filled  with 
Americans.  There  were  many  who  had  been 
to  the  front  (of  the  Ritz  hotel)  and  many 
who,  when  they  got  to  the  front,  were  going 
to  Berlin.  How  little  they  knew  or  know  of 
"  the  mole  route." 

I  met  a  woman  who  had  charge  of  one  of 
the  best  hospital  units  at  the  front  (not  of 
the  Ritz).  She  told  me  rather  an  amusing 
incident  of  a  very  pretty  young  French  girl 
who  came  out  to  see  her  boy  and  was  met  by 
my  friend  in  the  doorway. 

My  friend  asked  the  girl  what  she  wanted. 
She  replied  that  she  had  come  to  see  Lieut. 
So-and-So,  who  was  wounded.  My  friend 
replied,  "  You  know  we  don't  admit  peo- 
ple here  generally.  You  must  have  some 
reason  to  see  him."  The  girl  smiled  quite 
cordially  and  replied :  "  I  have  a  very  good 
48 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

reason.  I  am  his  sister."  Whereupon  my 
friend,  also  smiling,  replied :  "  Really  !  I  am 
so  glad  to  meet  you,  because  I  am  his 
mother." 

The  girl  became  frightfully  embarrassed, 
but  my  friend  simply  said,  "  Oh,  that 's  all 
right;  you  can  go  in  and  see  him." 

On  my  arrival  in  Paris  I  at  once  went  to 
Col.  Kean,  the  head  of  the  new  service,  and 
volunteered  my  services  with  the  new,  green 
American  Ambulance  Corps.  After  some 
time  and  with  the  consent  of  the  French  I 
received  my  paper  to  go  again  to  the  front. 
I  went  in  rather  a  curious  capacity;  that  is, 
I  was  attached  to  and  fed  by  the  American 
army  and  was  attached  to  and  paid  by  the 
French  army. 

It  was  on  the  morning  of  October  23, 
1917,  at  six  o'clock  that  I  tucked  myself  in 
a  first  class  compartment  on  the  train  bound 
for  Mont  Notre  Dame  or  Braisne,  where  I 
knew  the  Twenty-first  Division  was,  as  I  had 
49 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

only  left  it  a  few  days  before.  My  feelings 
were  very  mixed  as  the  jiggly  train  mean- 
dered along. 

Paris,  with  its  warm  bed  and  hot  water 
and  many  conveniences  and  good  food  and 
my  dog,  seemed  better  each  mile  that  the 
comic  engine  drew  me  nearer  to  the  scene 
of  what  was  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  battles 
of  the  war.  A  feeling  of  great  solitude  came 
over  me.  Here  was  I  going  out  to  forty 
green  strangers  alone  and  was  not  sure  that 
they  were  at  Braisne  or  that  I  could  possibly 
find  them  before  nightfall. 

The  cold  and  wet  and  the  ghastly  sights  I 
had  passed  through  loomed  up  in  my  vision 
and  Paris  seemed  good.  Yet  when  I  thought 
that  I  alone  of  the  ambulance  men  of  the 
Norton-Harjes  and  American  Field  Service, 
that  I  alone,  was  allowed  to  go  to  the  front  to 
assist  these  green  men,  a  warm  feeling  of, 
perhaps,  shall  I  say  pride  circled  about  my 
50 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

heart  and  I  was  glad  I  was  bound  for  the 
front. 

The  train  was  in  no  hurry,  so  I  arrived  at 
Fere-en-Tardenois  four  hours  late,  and  at 
two  o'clock  went  up  to  a  cafe  and  attempted 
to  get  lunch.  Being  a  stranger  I  had  to  go 
before  a  commissioner  in  order  to  take  out  a 
card  so  that  I  could  get  some  lunch.  This  is 
true  Hooverism. 

Another  leisurely  train  came  along  about 
3:30,  after  I  had  been  standing  for  an  hour 
in  the  drizzling  rain,  but  it  had  made  up  its 
mind  not  to  go  to  Braisne,  but  to  Mont 
Notre  Dame,  which  was  about  eight  kilo- 
meters from  where  I  thought  the  division  was. 
As  it  was  the  only  train  which  was  going  to 
the  front  for  twenty-four  hours,  I  piled  in 
and  arrived  at  Braisne  just  fourteen  hours 
late. 

I  got  out  in  a  perfect  sea  of  mud  and  a 
driving  rain  storm  with  my  duffle  bag  and  a 
51 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

blanket  roll.  Not  a  soul  was  in  sight  but  an 
old  man  who  had  a  small  pushcart.  I  offered 
him  five  francs  to  push  my  things  over  to 
Braisne,  and  he  characteristically  replied 
that  if  I  gave  him  the  five  francs  I  could 
push  them  over  myself;  which  I  did. 

It  was  now  dark  and  the  rain  and  mud 
were  inches  deep.  You  could  only  see  a  few 
feet  ahead.  At  the  turn  by  the  hospital  a 
camion  ran  into  a  staff  car  and  the  car 
looked  like  an  egg  that  some  one  had  sat 
upon. 

On  I  went,  pushing  the  horrible  little  cart, 
the  man  on  the  other  side  being  more  of  a 
drag  than  a  help.  At  last  we  reached  the 
little  hospital  at  Braisne,  by  a  lovely  stream, 
and  I  went  in  through  the  courtyard  and 
asked  an  old  friend  there  to  telephone  for  a 
car  for  an  American. 

When  I  came  out  all  my  stuff  had  been 
thrown  on  the  ground  in  the  rain.  So  I 
gave  the  man  five  francs  and  lay  down  close 
52 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

to  the  wall,  resting  my  head  on  my  duffle  bag. 
I  was  too  tired  to  care  whether  it  was  raining 
or  snowing  or  the  moon  was  out;  but  I  did 
think  the  sky  was  ominous,  for  it  was  dark, 
lowering,  foreboding;  the  rain  had  just 
ceased.  I  was  asleep  in  two  minutes.  Then 
I  heard  "  Whizz  —  e  —  e,"  far  over  my  head, 
and,  believe  me,  I  sat  up  like  a  shot,  went  in 
and  said,  "  That  was  a  Boche  shell  —  or  was 
I  dreaming?  " 

"  Oh,  you  're  not  dreaming,"  said  my 
friend.  "  They  dropped  several  notes  a  few 
days  ago  that  they  were  going  to  shell 
Braisne  to-night."  So  I  had  arrived  just  in 
time  for  the  shelling  party. 

I  went  out  into  the  courtyard  and  sat 
down.  There  was  n't  room  inside,  as  the 
room  was  filled  with  a  line  of  soldiers  who 
had  been  affected  by  mustard  gas,  which 
is  n't  very  serious,  in  their  eyes  and  they 
were  all  crying  like  babies  at  a  party.  In 
fact,  sitting  as  they  did  in  a  row,  with  their 
53 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

eyes  streaming,  waiting  to  be  treated,  they 
struck  me  as  a  band  of  mourners  who  had  all 
been  left  money. 

Shells  now  came  over  every  ten  minutes, 
but  they  were  high  up  in  the  air  and  nothing 
to  concern  one.  In  about  an  hour  a  ram- 
pant Ford  car  drew  into  the  yard  and  Earl 
Bibb,  a  very  attractive  young  Southerner, 
got  out,  and  appeared  greatly  excited.  He 
saw  me  lying  across  my  duffle  bag  and 
wanted  to  know  where  I  was  wounded.  I 
told  him  nowhere  that  I  knew  of,  that  I 
simply  wanted  to  join  the  division. 

He  was  very  much  amused  and  said  the 
boys  were  all  thrilled;  that  a  message  had 
come  to  send  a  car  at  once  to  Braisne  with 
an  ambulance  for  an  American,  and  he  sup- 
posed I  was  the  first  American  wounded  in 
the  war.     I  was  glad  to  disappoint  him. 

We  piled  my  things  in  and  soon  we  had 
reached  the  camp.  I  had  been  travelling 
about  eighteen  hours  and  of  course  had  had 
54 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

little  to  eat  or  drink.  I  was  informed  that 
the  attack  was  to  begin  the  next  morning 
and  I  felt  happy  that  I  should  be  there  in 
time  for  it. 

There  was  no  place  for  me  to  sleep,  but  I 
spied  a  big  Fiat  car  which  was  broken  down 
in  a  field.  I  went  over,  opened  the  back,  and 
—  joy!  —  it  was  empty.  So  I  threw  my 
things  in  —  I  did  n't  see  them  again  for  five 
days  afterward  —  got  a  cup  of  coffee,  and  at 
once  went  to  work. 


55 


PART  IV 

THE  evacuation  hospital  near  Braisne 
held  about  1,800  men  at  one  time  and 
was  made  of  canvas,  the  wounded  being 
put  on  the  ground  on  stretchers.  There 
was  a  small  bar  where  four  separate  di- 
visions contributed  coffee,  hard  boiled  eggs, 
sandwiches  of  cheese,  and  champagne,  free. 
Of  course  they  were  only  for  the  wounded 
and  those  working  in  the  hospital. 

Here  again  the  French  were  wonder- 
ful. No  man  took  even  a  slice  of  bread 
unless  he  was  really  hungry,  and  then 
ate  very  sparingly,  and  I  was  shocked  to 
see  one  —  thank  heaven,  only  one  —  Amer- 
ican eat  sandwich  after  sandwich  after  hav- 
ing had  a  full  supper  at  six  o'clock  —  and 
these  wounded  men  taking  simply  a  bite  or  a 
56 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

swallow,  though  some  of  them  had  not  had 
anything  to  eat  all  day. 

The  wounded  began  to  arrive  in  a  line  of 
automobiles  stretching  for  a  mile  and  a  half 
along  the  road.  It  was  a  stupendous  attack 
and  a  big  job  was  on.  The  cold  got  under 
my  skin,  for  I  was  outside  most  of  the  time. 

The  wounded  now  came  in  so  fast  that 
finally  there  was  not  room  for  one  more 
stretcher  in  the  hospital  and  the  last  arrivals 
had  to  stay  in  the  cars  on  the  road  until  some 
of  the  patients  could  be  removed  to  other 
base  hospitals.  Yet  this  hospital  covered  an 
area  equal  to  that  of  the  lower  floor  of  the 
Biltmore  Hotel.  I  noticed  that  nothing  but 
Colonials  came  in  —  Senegalese,  Zouaves, 
Moroccans,  Algerians,  Chasseurs. 

It  was  now  about  six  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing of  October  24,  1917.  The  smell,  the 
stench  of  blood,  the  tiny  stoves  bringing  it 
out,  was  overpowering  and  the  surgeons  were 
literally  dripping.  I  talked  to  the  one 
57 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

youngster  who  was  shot  in  the  head.  He 
said  the  attack  was  going  splendidly.  He 
was  one  of  the  first  over  the  top.  It 
was  launched  about  midnight,  following 
a  terrific  tir  de  barrage  which  had  been 
going  on  for  eleven  days  and  nights  and 
which  had  used  up  about  $100,000,000  worth 
of  ammunition. 

With  star  shells  illuminating  their  path  the 
Negroes,  Zouaves  and  Algerians,  armed  with 
hand  grenades  and  long  knives  only,  went 
over  and  kept  going  over  in  wave  after  wave. 
The  Boches  could  not  stand  the  thousands  of 
knives  glittering  in  the  star  shell  light  and 
they  gave  way.  The  first  trench  was  taken 
and  the  Chasseurs  came  over,  followed  by  the 
Zouaves. 

The  French  lieutenants  then  rounded  up 
the  Senegalese,  who  took  advantage  of  many 
opportunities  to  dodge  the  bullets  from  Ger- 
man rapid  fire  guns  by  hiding  in  shell  holes. 
The  officers  simply  gave  them  a  kick  and  said, 
58 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

"  Get  up  and  go  on,"  and  if  the  Negroes  did 
not  obey  they,  of  course,  would  threaten  to 
shoot  them,  but  the  order  was  usually  suffi- 
cient. Throat  after  throat  was  slit  from  ear 
to  ear  by  these  expert  Southern  troops.  The 
Boches  don't  like  this  kind  of  fighting  and  fell 
back  over  the  Chemin  des  Dames,  up  to  the 
Fort  of  Malmaison,  where  they  had  their  big 
guns. 

Cowardly  methods  with  the  Germans  have 
become  part  of  their  present  warfare,  so 
many  Boches  have  feigned  to  be  wounded  or 
shouted  "  Kamerad !  "  with  both  hands  up, 
only  to  stab  their  captor  from  behind  as  soon 
as  his  back  was  turned.  This  piece  of  treach- 
ery accomplished,  they  lie  down  again,  await- 
ing the  next  victim.  So  these  Senegalese, 
who  are  marvellous  with  the  knife,  cut  the 
throat.     It  is  the  only  safe  method. 

The  Zouaves,  Chasseurs  and  Senegalese  do 
not  like  to  take  prisoners  in  any  event. 
They  have  suffered  too  much  from  the 
59 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

"  Kamerad "  trick.  There  was  a  case  in 
which  a  whole  regiment  of  Boches  were  taken 
prisoners  with  their  hands  up.  Then  sud- 
denly, at  a  signal,  they  all  lay  down  on  the 
ground,  and  behind  them  a  section  of  rapid 
fire  German  guns  got  into  action  and  simply 
laid  900  French  Chasseurs  dead  on  the 
ground.  The  "  prisoners  "  then  retreated. 
One  great  feature  of  the  French  tem- 
perament is  this:  having  seen  about  4200 
wounded,  I  have  never  noticed  the  slightest 
indication  or  suggestion  of  a  desire  that  one 
wounded  man  be  moved  or  taken  care  of  be- 
fore another.  One  man  who  was  lying  within 
an  inch  or  two  of  another  —  they  were  all  like 
sardines  on  the  ground  —  uttered  a  groan 
and  I  went  over  and  gave  him  a  drink.  His 
stomach  was  practically  shot  away  and  he 
was  in  great  pain.  But  not  by  even  the  rais- 
ing of  an  eyelash  did  he  indicate  a  wish  to  be 
treated  before  the  youngster  who  lay  near 
him,  who  simply  had  his  hand  injured. 
60 


2&£ 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

Others  lay  for  half  an  hour  soaking  their 
stretchers  with  blood,  but  never  a  whimper, 
never  a  word  from  them;  all  were  silent  in 
their  suffering.  And  they  had  been  through 
a  great  trial.  I  must  give  you  an  idea  of 
how  long  it  takes  a  man  who  has  been 
wounded  to  get  to  a  hospital. 

He  is  wounded  on  the  field,  say,  at  twelve 
o'clock.  He  is  brought  in  by  the  stretcher 
bearers  at  12 :30  to  the  third  line.  He  waits 
his  turn,  about  fifteen  minutes ;  then  he  is 
taken  to  a  poste  de  secours;  then  put  into  the 
ambulance  about  fifteen  minutes  later;  then 
driven  to  a  field  hospital,  a  trip  which  takes 
from  half  to  three-quarters  of  an  hour. 
Then  he  waits  from  fifteen  minutes  to  one 
hour  for  his  turn ;  is  carried  into  the  hospital 
and  again  waits  his  turn,  not  less  than  fifteen 
minutes;  then  is  transferred  into  another 
ambulance  for  a  trip  of  several  kilometers 
to  a  base  hospital  —  traffic  frightfully  con- 
gested, time  allowed  from  half  to  three-quar- 
61 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

ters  of  an  hour.  In  other  words,  during  an 
attack  of  this  nature  a  man  was  lucky  if  he 
reached  a  base  hospital  within  three  and  a 
half  hours  after  he  was  wounded. 

Now  the  German  wounded  began  to  come 
in,  all  boys  of  from  seventeen  to  twenty.  I 
must  have  seen  about  150  of  them  and  I  saw 
not  one  who  looked  over  twenty.  I  talked 
with  a  number  of  them  in  French  and  in  Eng- 
lish. They  were  brought  in  with  the  French 
wounded,  in  the  same  ambulances,  and  there 
was  no  discrimination  in  the  treatment  of  the 
French  and  of  the  Germans. 

A  boy  of  seventeen  who  was  shot  in  the 
head  told  me  he  had  not  tasted  food  or  drink 
for  four  days;  had  not  even  had  any  water. 
I  got  him  some.  He  had  no  shoes  or  stock- 
ings or  underwear,  just  his  coat  and  breeches, 
which  were  soaked  through  with  rain,  mud 
and  blood.  A  French  stretcher  bearer  out- 
fitted him. 

He  said  the  French  artillery  was  terrible ; 
62 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

he  could  not  get  away  from  it.  It  was 
everywhere.  Their  roads  had  been  and  were 
being  shelled  so  that  no  food  could  be  brought 
up  to  the  soldiers  and  he  was  glad  when  he 
was  wounded  and  taken  by  the  French. 

I  asked  him  how  he  happened  to  get  over 
with  us,  and  he  replied  that  the  last  thing  he 
saw  was  four  stretcher  bearers  carrying  a 
German,  when  a  shell  burst  and  killed  all  five 
of  them.  He  then  decided  it  was  safer  over 
on  the  French  lines  and  he  had  crawled  over. 
This  was  the  first  time  he  had  ever  been  under 
fire. 

The  French  treat  these  wounded  Germans, 
who  have  killed  their  fathers  and  brothers 
and  left  French  mothers  and  sisters  and 
widows  roofless,  just  as  they  treat  their  own 
wounded.  Just  as  gently  they  carry  them 
and  cover  them  with  blankets  and  give  them 
food  and  warm  drink;  while  we  are  told  the 
Boches  starve,  mutilate,  inoculate  with  dis- 
ease, torture  for  information,  the  gallant 
63 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

Frenchmen  they  capture.     What  a  lesson  the 
Christ  has  taught  these  French  people ! 

At  this  time  I  had  no  special  duty.  I  was 
there  to  help  in  any  capacity  possible.  The 
road  was  now  filled  with  assis  (men  who 
have  been  wounded,  but  still  can  walk),  with 
fractured  arms,  wounded  heads  and  hands  or 
other  comparatively  slight  wounds ;  hundreds 
of  them,  a  stream  of  humanity,  dripping  with 
blood,  seeking  aid.  And  not  a  single  mur- 
mur, not  a  single  complaint.  Many  I  helped 
into  the  hospital,  through  the  driving  rain 
and  mud,  whose  feet  were  frozen  or  numb 
from  the  wet  and  cold.  It  seemed  so  curious, 
in  a  way,  to  go  up  to  one  of  these  fellows,  a 
black  Algerian,  covered  with  mud,  who  had 
fallen  or  slipped  down  and  help  him  up 
and  have  him  put  his  arm  over  your  shoul- 
der, while  you  assisted  him  to  go  where  there 
was  succor,  though  at  the  moment  one  only 
thought  of  him  as  one  of  your  own. 
64 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

A  young  South  African  came  up  the  road 
with  a  bandage  around  his  head  and  a 
spot  of  red  over  his  right  eye  about  the  size 
of  a  silver  dollar.  He  was  a  very  fine  type. 
He  stopped  and  asked  me  for  a  cigarette. 
He  said  that  along  the  whole  battle  front 
the  Germans  were  retreating  precipitately 
over  the  Oise-Aisne  canal;  that  the  French 
had  captured  the  fortified  village  of  Pinon  to 
the  left  of  and  far  above  the  Fort  of  Mal- 
maison;  that  the  whole  forest  of  Pinon  was 
now  in  French  hands;  that  the  Boches  were 
in  full  retreat. 

It  was  now  1  a.  m.,  October  25.  Many 
Senegalese  walked  in  with  frozen  feet  to  sit 
around  the  tiny  stove.  The  rain  now  turned 
into  sleet.  The  wind  was  cold  and  they  do 
not  stand  cold  well  —  nor  do  I.  The  stove 
was  only  about  ten  inches  in  diameter,  and 
the  odor  arising  from  overheated  boots, 
unwashed  bodies,  mud  soaked  clothes  and 
65 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

dried  blood  was  almost  unbearable.  Despite 
that  we  crowded  around  the  stove.  It  was 
at  least  warm. 

My  South  African  acquaintance  said: 
"  I  went  over  the  top  at  ten  o'clock  this 
morning.  It  was  very  hard  going,  as  the 
mud  was  too  slippery  to  afford  a  footing, 
but  we  managed  to  get  out  and  at  them, 
using  mitrailleuses,  hand  grenades  and 
knives,  and  we  put  them  on  the  run.  Our 
tir  de  barrage  had  simply  slaughtered 
them." 

Carrier  pigeons  now  came  back  and 
brought  the  news  that  the  French  had  cap- 
tured the  high  tower  of  Pinon,  which  was  two 
and  a  half  miles  from  their  starting  point, 
together  with  about  5,000  prisoners  and 
seventy-five  cannon. 

We  were  now  moved  nearer  the  front  with 

two    poste    de    secours.     Near    one    called 

Bascule,     about    half    a     mile     from     the 

third  line,  we  found  a  great  number  of  dead 

66 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

piled  up  in  the  road  —  horses  and  men. 
Some  of  the  bodies  had  to  be  pulled  off  the 
road  in  order  to  make  it  clear  for  traffic. 
Besides  the  bodies  that  were  lying  stretched 
in  different  positions,  some  with  their  heads 
shot  off,  some  with  their  chests  torn  and 
ripped  open,  I  saw  two  mounds  of  dead 
Chasseurs  at  Ferme  Hemeret,  about  fifteen 
or  twenty  in  each  mound,  one  body  piled 
on  top  of  the  other. 

Some  lay  as  if  in  slumber;  the  faces  of 
others  were  contorted  by  the  great  agony 
they  had  passed  though ;  others  were  in  most 
grotesque  positions.  One  had  fallen  astride 
of  four  other  comrades  and  with  his  helmet 
on  looked  for  all  the  world  as  if  he  was 
playing  horse. 

One  could  see  a  long  line  of  men  winding 
their  way  from  the  front  to  this  place,  and 
each  two  carried  one  who  had  given  his  life 
that  France  might  gain  this  great  and  glor- 
ious victory.  This  procession  of  the  dead 
67 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

wound  its  way  toward  us  silently  and  slowly 
from  as  far  as  one  could  see. 

The  poste  at  Ferme  Hemeret  lies  in  a  very 
beautiful  valley.  To  the  right  is  a  grotto 
which  is  simply  extraordinary  for  its  size. 
To  the  left  the  chateau  with  its  barns  and 
stables  nestled  against  the  hill,  while  through 
the  valley  a  gentle  stream  winds  its  way 
from  the  hills  above,  the  water,  once  clear 
and  dancing  in  the  sunlight,  now  murky  with 
blood  of  many  peoples. 

The  glorious  chateau  had  jaot  one  stone 
left  upon  the  other.  Back  of  the  piles  of 
rubbish  were  our  155s,  blazing  away  their 
message  of  death  to  the  Boches.  In  front, 
on  the  other  side  of  the  road,  were  the  75s 
doing  the  same  work.  The  trees  were 
scorched  and  the  grass  was  seared  from  Ger- 
man shells. 

I  called  it  in  my  imagination  the  Valley  of 
Desolation,  and  as  I  went  along  the  road  and 
thought  of  the  happiness  which  had  once 
68 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

been  there,  and  the  sadness  and  sorrows  which 
had  entered  in,  I  seemed  to  forget  for  the 
moment  where  I  was,  till  a  Boche  shell  struck 
on  the  bank  just  above  me,  throwing  dirt  over 
my  head.  I  then  knew  well  and  ran  into  the 
abri  (dugout). 

The  bombardment  had  been  so  terrific  that 
the  Fort  of  Malmaison,  which  had  been  held 
for  two  years,  was  literally  razed  to  the 
ground.  Over  3300  dead  bodies  were  found 
smashed  and  torn  by  the  artillery  a  long 
time  before  the  advance  began.  Most  of 
them  were  pitched  forward  on  their  heads, 
owing  to  the  terrible  concussion  from  above, 
and  the  great  majority  had  deep  head 
wounds.  After  the  "Senegalese,  Zouaves  and 
Chasseurs  went  over  they  sent  hurriedly 
across  the  River  Styx  8,000  more. 

The  detail  of  the  method  of  attack  is  in- 
tensely interesting.  The  Allied  line  stretches 
from  the  coast  to  Switzerland.  Of  this  the 
French  hold  about  two-thirds  and  the  English 
69 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

about  one-third.  A  commentary  on  the 
French  soldier  is  that  the  English  have 
double  the  number  of  troops  on  their  line 
that  the  French  have  in  relative  distance. 
The  English  are  now  extending  their  line. 

The  method  of  the  French  attack  in  detail 
is  as  follows:  The  attacking  divison  is 
brought  up  to  within  four  or  five  kilometers 
of  the  third  line,  where  it  rests  and  prepares 
for  the  attack.  Its  ammunition  and  artil- 
lery wagons  are  going  all  night,  bringing  up 
artillery  and  ammunition.  This  takes  a  pe- 
riod of  from  one  month  to  two  months. 

About  a  week  before  the  attack  —  which 
was  on  October  23,  at  the  Chemin  des  Dames 
—  two  holding  divisions  are  sent  up  to  the 
lines  and  they  replace  the  division  which  has 
been  there.  They  occupy  the  first  and  sec- 
ond line  trenches.  They  are  composed  of 
what  one  would  call  "  regular  "  soldiers. 

The  third  line  is  then  occupied  by  the  at- 
tacking troops,  made  up  of  the  Moroccans, 
70 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

Algerians,  Chasseurs  and  Zouaves.  These 
colonial  troops  do  not  like  barrage  fire  and 
they  are  therefore  not  put  up  to  the  front 
line  until  the  night  before  they  go  over  the 
top.  They  are  men  particularly  high  strung 
and  temperamental  and  are  supposed  to  be 
really  only  good  for  attacking;  but  no  sol- 
diers are  better  in  this  capacity. 

After  the  two  holding  divisons  and  the 
colonial  troops  are  in  the  first  three  lines 
their  ammunition  and  guns  are  also  brought 
up  closer  to  the  lines.  This  takes  about  an- 
other week.  Of  course  every  one  is  pitched 
to  the  highest  key  and  there  was  practically 
no  sleep  before  this  last  attack,  since  there 
was  a  constant  tir  de  barrage  from  the 
French  guns,  and  when  one  lay  down  in  the 
dugouts  the  earth  simply  throbbed  with  the 
reverberation. 

On  the  night  of  October  23  the  first  hold- 
ing and  second  holding  divisions  came  back 
and  occupied  trenches  two  and  three  and  the 
71 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

attacking  colonial  troops  went  up  during  the 
night  and  occupied  the  first  line  trench.  In 
the  morning  they  are  given  a  teaspoonful  of 
brandy,  some  bread  and  coffee,  and  as  dawn 
comes  they  pull  down  the  gates  and  go  out 
over  the  top  into  the  faces  of  the  enemy  rapid 
fire  guns,  hand  grenades  and  shrapnel. 

"  Going  over  the  top  "  has  been  written 
and  talked  so  much  about  by  those  who  have 
seen  an  attack  from  the  front  of  the  Hotel 
Ritz  that  I  am  sure  the  detail  of  it  cannot 
fail  to  be  of  intense  interest.  Along  the 
whole  French  front  we  have  wire  entangle- 
ments. These  consist  of  posts  driven  into 
the  ground  in  pairs  in  the  shape  of  an  X, 
and  innumerable  strands  of  barbed  wire 
stretched  from  the  top  of  one  pair  of  posts  to 
the  bottom  of  the  next  and  back  and  forth 
across  the  space  between  the  posts  until  there 
is  almost  a  solid  barricade  of  wire. 

At  intervals  of  about  forty  or  fifty  yards, 
sometimes  less,  are  what  we  call  the  gates. 
72 


Observer  near  Malmaison,  Chemin  des  Dames, 
to   right  is   firing 


Soldier 


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Just  before  firing  a  small  gun  from  the  second-line  trench, 
Chemin  des  Dames 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

These  are  made  of  iron,  with  wire  stretched 
across  them  at  exactly  the  same  height  as  the 
ordinary  wire,  but  they  are  fastened  to  the 
solid  posts  by  a  single  stranfl  of  wire.  The 
gates  are  changed  every  night  along  the 
whole  French  front,  so  that  in  attacking  the 
Boches  cannot  tell  exactly  where  the  gates 
are  and  where  to  train  their  rapid  fire  guns. 
As  every  single  gate  is  changed  every  single 
night  you  can  see  that  in  itself  it  is  a  big  job. 

An  incident  of  this:  A  man  who  was  in 
charge  of  changing  the  gates  in  a  certain 
sector  went  out  about  October  19,  but  did 
not  come  back  for  about  three  hours.  It  was 
thought  that  he  took  a  long  while  for  the 
work,  so  the  next  night  when  he  went  out  to 
change  his  gates  they  sent  several  men  out 
about  half  an  hour  after  he  had  gone.  Not 
finding  him,  they  moved  the  gates  and  put  in 
the  solid  wire. 

About  two  hours  after  that  they  heard  a 
rustling  in  the  wire  and  put  up  a  star  shell. 
73 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

Seeing  him  in  the  wire,  some  one  hit  him  with 
a  hand  grenade,  tearing  open  his  shoulder. 
Then  he  was  dragged  in  again. 

It  appears  that  for  the  two  years  he  had 
been  on  duty  changing  the  gates  he  had  made 
a  practice  of  going  over  directly  to  the  Ger- 
man lines,  telling  the  Germans  where  the 
French  artillery  was  ancl  about  how  much 
infantry  was  present,  and  about  when  they 
expected  to  attack ;  giving  them,  in  fact,  all 
the  information  that  he  had.  He  confessed 
this,  hoping  they  would  spare  his  life.  When 
he  got  through  some  one  cut  his  throat  with 
an  Algerian  knife  and  his  body  was  cast 
aside.     Five  more  were  caught  doing  this. 


74, 


PART  V 

IT  is  now  the  night  of  the  23d  of  October. 
The  Moroccans  are  in  the  front  line 
trench,  with  the  Chasseurs  and  Zouaves  and 
Senegalese.  They  have  had  their  brandy, 
their  coffee.  A  faint  shadow  of  dawn  is  com- 
ing over  the  trenches  from  the  east.  The 
signal  is  about  to  be  given.  The  great  guns 
are  simply  blotting  out  the  German  trenches 
and  the  Fort  of  Malmaison,  dealing  death 
and  destruction,  and  the  small  75s  are  play- 
ing a  curtain  of  fire  into  the  front  line  trench 
of  the  Germans. 

A  cable  with  a  hook  at  the  end  is  used  for 
pulling  down  the  iron  gates.  It  was  sug- 
gested that  after  the  Senegalese  had  pulled 
down  the  gates  and  had  gone  out  and  over  and 
through  them,  the  Zouaves,  who  came  along 
75 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

behind,  should  pick  up  these  same  cables  and 
carry  them  over  to  the  German  wire  entangle- 
ments and  attach  them  to  the  posts  and 
wire.  The  other  end  of  the  cables,  it  was 
proposed,  should  be  attached  to  tractors  in 
the  rear  which  would  draw  in  the  cables  and 
thus  pull  down  the  Germans  wire  barriers 
handily. 

It  is  about  4 :30  in  the  morning. 

The  signal  is  given;  they  throw  out  the 
cables  all  along  the  line  and  attach  them  to 
the  iron  gates.  Another  signal,  the  gates 
all  come  down  and  with  fiendish  yells  the  wild 
Senegalese  rush  out  over  the  top,  through 
the  gates  and  toward  the  German  front  line 
trench  with  their  knives  in  the  air. 

Many  are  mown  down,  but  the  others  keep 
going,  wave  after  wave,  toward  the  German 
trenches.  So  enthusiastic  are  they  and  so 
protected  do  they  feel  themselves  by  the  mar- 
velous French  artillery,  which  plays  a  perfect 
stream  of  shells  as  from  a  hose  in  front  of 
76 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

them,  that  many  of  them  vault  over  the 
German  wire  into  the  first  German  trench, 
cutting,  slashing  their  way  through. 

Back  of  them  come  the  Chasseurs,  carry- 
ing the  cables  which  had  been  used  for  the 
gates.  These  they  attach  to  the  German 
wire.  At  a  given  signal  the  tractors  start 
their  engines  which  begin  to  wind  up  the 
cables,  and  they  pull  the  whole  German  wire 
barrier  down.  This  brings  forth  the  great- 
est excitement  and  enthusiasm,  as  the  Chas- 
seurs and  Zouaves  are  on  top  of  the  Germans 
long  before  the  Boches  have  any  idea  they 
could  be  there.  In  consequence  there  is 
nothing  but  hand  to  hand  fighting. 

The  Germans  retreated  from  the  first  line, 
second  line  and  third  line,  and  finally  gave 
up  the  Fort  of  Malmaison  and  retreated 
over  the  Oise-Aisne  Canal,  some  Hve  kilo- 
meters from  the  front  French  line.  They  re- 
treated in  disorder,  one  might  say  an  absolute 
rout.  And  it  was  not  because  they  did 
77 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

not  know  and  were  not  cognizant  of  the 
coming  attack,  for  besides  the  spies  who 
had  told  them,  there  were  a  great  many 
other  means  by  which  they  knew  almost 
the  hour  that  the  attack  was  to  begin, 
and  they  had  been  preparing  for  it  for  a 
month.  They  simply  could  not  stand  the 
terrific  onslaught. 

The  Chasseurs  with  their  bayonets,  liquid 
grenades  and  hand  grenades  worked  terrific 
havoc  with  the  Boches.  The  French  artillery 
was  simply  playing  a  sheet  of  fire  on  their  ar- 
tillery. Seven  hundred  of  their  big  guns  had 
been  destroyed  and  300  of  their  smaller  guns. 

The  roads  back  of  their  lines  were  simply 
churned  with  the  French  artillery,  so  that  no 
food  had  been  brought  up  to  them  for  five 
days  and  the  wounded  could  not  be  taken 
away,  but  lay  where  they  were  for  the  reason 
that  no  ambulances  could  come  up  and  most 
of  the  stretcher-bearers  had  been  killed.  For 
miles,  from  the  twenty-third  to  the  twenty- 
78 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

sixth  of  October,  there  was  nothing  but  a  sea 
of  blood  and  mud  and  foul  stench,  and  the 
horrors  of  the  situation  were  increased  by  the 
ceaseless  belching  of  the  French  artillery  and 
the  cries  of  the  Boches  whose  throats  were 
being  slit  and  whose  heads  were  being  nearly 
cut  off  by  the  Senegalese  with  their  terrific 
knives. 

On  and  on  the  Germans  retreated,  further 
and  further  back  over  the  Ailette  River,  giv- 
ing up  the  forest  of  Pinon,  and  at  last,  after 
having  held  for  two  years  with  the  cream  of 
the  German  army  this  the  nearest  point  to 
Paris,  they  found  themselves  totally  routed 
and  defeated,  and  this  wonderful  French 
division  found  itself  in  possession  of  the  en- 
tire Aisne  plateau,  the  Fort  of  Malmaison 
and  within  six  kilometers  of  the  city  of  Laon, 
which  they  will  take  soon.  The  Boches  lost 
entire  control  of  the  whole  of  the  Chemin  des 
Dames. 

When  one  considers  the  thousands  and 
79 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

thousands  of  lives  that  have  been  lost  over  the 
Chemin  des  Dames  one  can  only  say,  "  Well, 
wouldn't  you  know  the  Ladies'  Way  would  be 
hardest  fought  over !  "  Incidentally,  years 
and  years  ago  there  were  two  young  men 
very  much  in  love  with  two  lovely  ladies. 
The  parents  of  the  ladies  objected  to  the 
youths,  who  were  rather  dashing  and  gay, 
and  refused  to  let  them  come  over  the  regular 
road  to  see  their  sweethearts.  Whereupon 
the  youths,  being  rich  and  in  love,  had  the 
Chemin  des  Dames,  the  Ladies'  Way,  built 
for  their  special  use  in  order  that  they  might 
go  and  see  the  young  ladies.  So  much  for 
the  Chemin  des  Dames. 

On  October  £8  the  prisoners  came  in  in 
droves  and  were  at  once  put  to  work  on  the 
roads,  though  there  is  some  sort  of  under- 
standing that  a  prisoner  is  not  to  be  taken 
within  so  many  kilometers  of  the  firing  line ; 
that  is,  he  is  not  to  be  in  danger.  The 
French,  of  course,  follow  this  agreement  out 
80 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

practically  to  the  letter,  except  that  it  is  dif- 
ficult sometimes  to  draw  the  line  of  where 
danger  is.  It  may  be  at  the  front  line,  it 
may  be  where  the  roads  are  in  bad  shape  at 
the  third  line,  or  it  may  be  five  miles  back  on 
account  of  shrapnel.  Therefore  in  handling 
prisoners  one  has  to  use  one's  judgment  as  to 
where  the  safest  place  is  to  put  them  at  work 
on  the  roads.     An  instance  of  this : 

A  young  French  lieutenant  that  I  knew 
had  gone  over  the  top  to  rout  the  Senegalese 
out  of  shell  holes  in  no  man's  land,  a  duty 
which  has  already  been  described.  He  was 
out  two  days  and  two  nights  and  finally  came 
back  to  the  dugout  with  a  very  untidy  looking 
bandage  around  his  head.  "  Where  did  you 
get  that  ?  "  he  was  asked. 

"  Well,  it 's  the  damndest  luck.  Here  I 
have  been  out  two  days  and  two  nights  under 
direct  rapid  gun  fire  and  hand  grenades  and 
not  a  scratch,  and  just  as  I  was  walking  back 
here,  my  job  finished,  and  was  standing 
81 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

within  an  eighth  of  a  mile  of  the  dugout  roll- 
ing a  cigarette,  a  piece  of  shrapnel  comes 
along  and  cuts  my  head  open." 

So  jou  are  only  under  fire  when  you  are 
hit;  at  least  that's  the  way  I  figure  it  out. 
We  bandaged  his  head  and  the  surgeon  said 
he  would  be  all  right  in  two  or  three  weeks. 
Such  is  the  luck  of  being  under  fire. 

There  are  nineteen  modes  of  communica- 
tion between  the  French  aviators  and  the 
French  artillery.  In  sending  messages  from 
the  attacking  front  line  troops  to  the  Gen- 
eral Staff  dugout  pigeons  are  generally  used. 
These  are  carried  by  Senegalese  with  notes 
attached  to  them  and  all  with  certain  marks 
on  their  legs.  They  are  sent  back  a  few 
minutes  after  the  attack  is  started,  telling  at 
once  that  the  outlook  is  favorable  and  that 
the  Boches  are  retreating,  or  that  it  is  un- 
favorable and  they  need  more  troops,  or  that 
they  do  not  need  any  help,  or  to  bring  up 
82 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

more  troops,  as  they  are  going  to  take  the 
next  trench,  &c. 

These  blessed  birds  are  nearly  a  sure  mode 
of  communication.  They  are  seldom  hit, 
they  fly  with  tremendous  rapidity,  they  go  at 
once  on  their  errand  and  they  do  not  stop 
to  read  a  dime  novel.  They  are  swift  and 
sure. 

Pigeons  are  also  released  from  the  air- 
planes which  are  making  observations.  One 
of  the  best  means  of  communication  in  a 
rapid  attack  —  it  was  used  at  the  Chemin  des 
Dames  —  between  the  aviator  and  the  artil- 
lery, is  simply  a  strip  of  white  cloth,  which 
is  laid  on  the  ground  where  it  can  be  ob- 
served by  the  aviator.  The  messages  are 
sent  by  folding  and  unfolding  the  cloth 
rapidly.  The  signal  repeated  twice  might 
direct  the  aviator  to  fly  over  a  certain  area ; 
once,  to  return;  three  times,  that  he  was  in 
the  right  position.  This,  of  course,  is  a  very 
83 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

good  mode  of  communication,  as  it  cannot 
possibly  be  seen  by  the  enemy.  The  other 
modes  of  communication  I  do  not  feel  myself 
at  liberty  to  speak  of. 

When  the  French  reached  Malmaison  they 
found  an  enormous  quantity  of  German  hel- 
mets, not  only  of  those  of  the  dead  who  had 
been  crushed  by  the  bombardment,  but  oth- 
ers evidently  left  behind  by  Boches  who  had 
simply  fled.  While  this  was  the  explanation 
of  their  presence  in  many  instances,  yet  the 
engineers  discovered  that  in  a  great  many  of 
the  helmets  were  time  bombs.  Most  of  them 
were  extinct,  though  a  few  went  off  and 
killed  perhaps  half  a  dozen  French  soldiers. 
This  is  a  very  good  method  of  placing 
bombs,  as  a  helmet  thrown  over  in  the  mud 
is  n't  usually  an  object  of  suspicion. 

So  extraordinarily  rapid  was  the  French 

advance  that  up  at  Malmaison  in  one  of  the 

dugouts,  which  the  Boches  had  deserted  only 

about  five  hours  before,  there  was  one  man 

84 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

who  had  been  killed  by  a  piece  of  shrapnel 
leaning  over  a  table,  gripping  a  telephone 
instrument.  They  had  literally  to  break  his 
fingers  to  get  the  instrument,  which  I  have. 
He  was  evidently  telephoning  when  killed. 

The  wounded  were  now  being  brought 
back,  French  and  Boche,  and  there  was  prac- 
tically no  road  left,  it  had  been  so  torn  up 
by  shells;  on  both  sides  and  in  the  road 
were  dead  men  and  horses.  The  advance  of 
the  gallant  French  was  so  rapid  that  they 
did  not  have  time  to  bury  their  dead. 

October  28  was  rainy,  dark  and  cold,  and  I 
was  assisting  young  Mr.  Bibb,  who  had 
never  driven  at  the  front  before,  over  this 
road  from  the  trenches.  What  occurred  on 
one  trip  was  afterward  told  by  a  wounded 
Frenchman  who  understood  the  situation, 
and  who  spoke  English.     He  said : 

"  It  was  so  dark,  the  mud  so  deep  and  the 
road  so  full  of  shell  holes  that  Mr.  Gibson 
walked  slowly  in  front  of  the  car  guiding 
85 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

its  direction.  One  had  to  feel  one's  way. 
He  cleared  the  road  as  we  proceeded. 
Finally  he  shouted  above  the  screeching  of 
breaking  shrapnel  shells : 

"  *  We  will  have  to  wait  a  few  minutes. 
The  road  is  blocked  above.  We  are  in  a  bad 
place,  the  Boches  are  shelling  like  hell,  but 
keep  your  engine  running  and  your  shirt  on 
and  I  will  get  you  out  all  right.' 

"  He  started  up  the  road  with  shrapnel 
bursting  ahead  of  him.  Suddenly  he  went 
down  in  the  mud,  but  was  soon  on  his  feet 
again  and  disappeared  in  the  darkness.  It 
was  not  until  some  time  after  that  I  was 
told  he  was  struck  by  shrapnel  fire,  a 
piece  denting  his  helmet  and  knocking  him 
down.     He  made  no  report  of  it. 

"  Fifteen  minutes  went  by  and  it  looked  as 
if  he  had  '  got  his  '  when  he  appeared  floun- 
dering through  the  mud,  blood  and  slime  and 
called  out  cheerily: 

"  '  It 's  all  right,  it 's  clear,  come  along 
86 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

behind  me  and  you  will  soon  be  in  good  hands, 
mon  vieux.9 

"  In  half  an  hour  we  were  at  the  hospital." 

It  was  a  privilege  to  have  been  with  Earl 
Bibb ;  though  only  a  youngster,  he  was  cool 
and  calm  under  the  heaviest  enemy  shell  fire 
it  has  been  my  misfortune  to  ever  witness. 

On  the  morning  of  the  twenty-ninth  of  Oc- 
tober the  Boches  sent  over  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  sixty-four  airplanes,  including  a 
number  of  small,  fast  flying  'planes,  and 
about  twenty-five  battle  'planes.  To  the  left 
of  Fort  Malmaison  and  near  a  battery  of 
75s  was  a  small  mound  on  which  was  camou- 
flaged with  tiny  branches  of  trees  an  anti- 
aircraft gun.  I  went  up  there  during  the 
morning. 

As  the  Boches  were  sending  over  so  many 
'planes  it  was  necessary  that  the  anti-aircraft 
guns  be  kept  in  active  operation.  An  anti- 
aircraft gun  is  a  very  simple  machine.  The 
shells  are  fed  in  by  one  man  and  pulled 
87 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

through  by  another,  and  one  kneels  on  the 
ground  and  sights  at  the  airplanes  that  come 
over.  It  is  curious  how  the  god  of  war  takes 
hold  of  one  in  many  different  ways.  I  felt 
no  more  qualm  in  calmly  firing  this  gun  at  a 
human  being  whom  I  could  see  circling  in  the 
air  above  me  than  if  I  were  shooting  quail  in 
South  Carolina. 

The  Germans  kept  constantly  dropping 
small  air  bombs,  but  they  did  not  come  near 
enough  to  bother  us  very  much,  the  closest 
being  about  a  hundred  yards  away.  I  went 
over  and  picked  it  up  and  brought  it  home 
with  me.     It  did  not  even  go  off. 

The  moral  effect  of  the  anti-aircraft  gun 
is  splendid.  Seldom  does  one  hit  an  aviator 
or  even  the  machine,  but  the  rattle  and  sharp 
crack  of  the  gun  keeps  the  aviator  from  com- 
ing down  too  low,  from  taking  many  pictures 
and  from  exposing  himself  to  the  fire  more 
than  he  can  help.  It  is  a  great,  great  pro- 
tection, and  there  are  thousands  of  them  from 
88 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

the  front  line  all  the  way  back  to  Paris. 

It  was  not  long  after  this  that  the  division 
at  the  first  line  was  replaced  by  another 
division  and  we  went  en  repos  at  a  lovely  little 
village  near  Soissons,  where  the  work  of  re- 
fitting the  division  began.  The  day  before  I 
went  to  Paris  was  one  of  the  happiest  days 
in  my  life,  when,  absolutely  unexpectedly,  I 
was  given  the  Cross  of  War  with  the  two 
citations,  one  referring  to  the  fighting  at 
St.  Quentin  and  one  to  the  recent  attack  at 
the  Chemin  des  Dames. 

Having  seen  over  4000  French  wounded 
and  talked  with  a  great  many  hundreds  of 
soldiers  and  several  officers,  I  know  first  hand 
and  directly  the  feeling  of  the  French.  It 
is  while  they  are  tired  of  the  struggle, 
when  an  attack  comes  along  they  advance 
and  hold  what  they  gain.  They  have  sacri- 
ficed the  best  blood  of  their  country  and  they 
are  sacrificing  it  to-day.  The  women  have 
made  great  sacrifices  in  their  turn  and  the 
89 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

spirit  of  the  French  soldier  is  now  becoming 
that  of  the  conqueror,  no  longer,  as  at  first, 
that  of  the  man  only  doing  his  best  to  save 
his  home. 

I  have  also  talked  with  a  number  of  Ger- 
man wounded  prisoners  within  the  last  ten 
weeks  and  have  seen  several  thousand  pris- 
oners. The  morale  of  the  German  is  not 
what  it  was.  He  started  out  to  be  a  con- 
queror ;  now  he  is  willing  to  do  the  best  that 
he  can  to  get  out  of  it.  He  is  simply  hang- 
ing on. 

The  Boche  soldier  knows  that  he  is  never 
going  to  Paris  and  he  knows  and  realizes  that 
he  was  once  within  ten  miles  of  it  and  now  he 
is  eighty  miles  away  from  it,  having  been 
driven  back  and  back,  so  that  the  spirit  of 
the  conqueror  is  dead.  It  is  simply  the  spirit 
of  tenacity  that  is  animating  the  German 
army ;  while  the  spirit  of  the  French,  who  is 
the  conqueror  now,  is  growing  stronger  and 
stronger. 

90 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

Briefly,  the  ambition  of  the  German  soldier 
to-day  and  of  Germany  to-day  is  to  survive. 
In  the  beginning  it  was  to  conquer.  It  is  not 
possible  that  the  German  army  will  hold  out 
another  winter. 

During  the  past  three  months  the  French 
have  made  the  greatest  advances  since  the 
beginning  of  the  war.  They  went  out  at 
Verdun  eleven  weeks  ago,  took  Hill  304  and 
drove  the  Germans  back  seven  miles,  making 
Verdun  as  safe  as  New  York.  At  Chemin 
des  Dames,  from  where  I  have  just  come,  the 
Germans  lost  a  complement  of  50,000  men 
and  an  advance  of  ten  kilometers  on  a  fifteen 
kilometer  front  that  was  taken  and  held,  and 
is  held  to-day,  at  the  nearest  point  to  Paris. 
This  is  the  actual  situation  in  the  French 
and  German  armies. 

On   arriving  in   Paris   I   found  that  the 

Americans    themselves   were   very   prone   to 

criticise  the  Americans  and  each  man  wanted 

to  have  a  higher  commission  than  his  neigh- 

91 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

bor.  This  same  situation  exists  in  America, 
and  only  the  death  of  soldiers  and  officers 
will  bring  about  a  rational  attitude  in  this 
regard. 

It  is  certain  that  there  is  too  much  criti- 
cism of  the  American  by  the  American.  We 
cannot  all  be  generals,  we  cannot  all  have  the 
privilege  of  shedding  some  or  all  of  our  blood 
for  our  country,  but  we  can  all  do  our  part, 
and  each  part  is  as  essential  as  any  of  the 
others.  The  girl  who  gives  coffee  to  the 
soldier  at  the  way  station  is  doing  her  part, 
just  as  the  man  is  in  the  trenches ;  it  makes 
no  difference  what  ones  does  if  one  does  one's 
duty  by  oneself. 

It  matters  not  if  you  be  a  soldier,  farmer, 
officer,  ambulance  man,  surgeon,  diplomat, 
clerk,  Senator,  Representative,  Jackie,  ad- 
miral, stoker,  wireless  operator,  mine  layer, 
factory  worker,  trench  digger,  General,  bal- 
loon observer,  Y.  M.  C.  A.  worker,  submarine 
pilot,  engineer,  gas  man,  grenade  thrower  or 
92 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

aviator,  you  are  an  integral  part  of  a  great 
human  chain,  and  through  the  tears  and 
blood  that  are  to  flow  if  you  are  an  Ameri- 
can, you  will  strive  to  be  of  this  chain  its 
strongest  link. 


PART  VI 

THE  writer  has  never  been  a  student  of 
economic  conditions  of  nations,  but  has 
always  been  a  close  observer  of  men,  and 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  individual  and 
collective  soldier  this  war  will  not  last 
a  day  beyond  1919.  This  deduction  is  not 
made  because  Italy  will  have  no  flour, 
London  will  be  destroyed  by  air-craft,  the 
United  States  cannot  transport  more  men,  or 
because  Germany  is  broken  by  lack  of  food 
and  internal  dissensions,  but  it  is  based  upon 
a  first-hand  knowledge  of  a  certain  number 
of  the  German  army  whom  the  writer  has 
talked  to  personally  under  conditions  which 
brought  out  the  truth  from  the  Hun  and 
under  which  he  was  unable  to  camouflage 
his  feelings. 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

We  concede  that  the  German  emperor  is 
no  fool,  and  we  realize  that,  while  he  made 
the  greatest  blunder  that  has  occurred  in 
any  war  at  the  Battle  of  the  Marne, —  a  pos- 
sible exception  being  Napoleon's  effort  to 
cut  through  Wellington's  line  on  that  fatal 
Sunday, —  he  deserves  all  the  credit  that  is 
due  his  military  acumen.  We  also  know 
that  the  greater  his  intelligence,  the  more  he 
must  realize  that  every  day,  nay,  every  hour, 
that  the  war  continues  means  a  more  de- 
graded and  distasteful  peace  for  the  German 
autocracy.  He  knows  full  well  to-night  that 
his  army  on  the  western  front  is  a  defeated 
army ;  that  three  years  ago  he  had  the  great- 
est military  organization  in  the  world;  that 
he  had  prepared  to  strike  this  blow  for 
twenty-five  years,  and  that  he  struck  France 
as  a  brute  would  strike  a  gentle  little  girl; 
that  he  took  the  world  unawares ;  that  he 
rushed  through  Belgium  leaving  a  trail  of 
tears  and  blood ;  that  he  entered  France  and 
95 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

destroyed  that  country  and  her  people  to 
the  gates  of  Paris,  that  he  even  ordered 
dinner  for  himself  at  the  "  Cafe  de  Paris  " 
in  Paris. 

But  the  spirit  of  France  was  not  unlike 
the  spirit  of  Christ.  This  child  of  faith  and 
truth  and  right  arose  with  the  finger-marks 
of  the  beast  upon  her  throat,  her  feet  bleed- 
ing with  many  miles  of  retreat,  her  cheeks 
furrowed  with  the  tears  of  her  anguish,  her 
breasts  slashed  by  the  merciless,  lustful  in- 
vader. She  arose  as  if  the  hand  of  some 
unseen  power  had  given  her  strength.  She 
grappled  with  the  demon,  and  he  who  had 
allowed  his  horses  and  guns  and  men  to  walk 
and  be  dragged  over  the  bodies  of  babies, 
the  conquering  soldier  of  the  world,  found 
himself  in  a  death-grip  with  this  totally 
changed  adversary.  As  the  grip  of  France 
tightened  upon  the  throat  of  the  heinous 
Hun,  the  moral  courage  of  the  German 
soldier  waned,  and  he  who  was  to  dine  in 
96 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

Paris  the  next  day  is  still  dining  in  Ber- 
lin. The  soldier  who  was  sent  to  pave  the 
way  through  rivers  of  blood,  in  order  that 
the  emperor  might  taste  of  French  cooking, 
is  not  at  the  gates  of  Paris  to-night,  but  is 
between  eighty  and  one  hundred  miles  from 
them.  Why?  Because  the  French  army  is 
superior  to  the  German  army,  because  the 
French  army  has  proven  that  it  is  superior. 

When  the  Austrians  suggested  the  use  of 
great  guns  to  the  Germans,  the  latter  pooh- 
poohed  the  idea,  but  a  curious  commentary 
on  the  Battle  of  the  Marne  is  that  the  very 
guns  which  prevented  the  German  army  from 
being  cut  to  pieces  and  entirely  annihilated 
and  destroyed,  being  immobile,  hindered  the 
Germans  from  taking  Paris.  In  addition, 
the  guns  which  in  a  measure  prevented  the 
kaiser  from  taking  Paris,  in  turn  saved  the 
German  army. 

The  writer  has  talked  with  a  number  of 
men  who  were  in  the  Battle  of  the  Marne. 
97 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

It  is  ancient  history,  so  will  I  only  refer  to 
it  briefly  and  perhaps  throw  an  intimate 
side-light  which  came  to  me  first-hand.  I 
quote  from  memory  what  was  told  me  by 
Lieutenant  de  Rose  of  the  French  army. 

"  The  big  Austrian  guns  paved  the  way 
through  Belgium  to  Verdun.  Realizing  that 
Verdun  was  no  more  able  to  withstand 
the  Austrian  guns  than  the  Belgian  forts, 
we  rushed  out  our  big  guns  far  in  advance 
of  Verdun,  so  that  when  the  Germans  came 
there  they  were  unable  to  shell  Verdun  as 
they  had  anticipated.  Consequently,  being 
held  at  Verdun,  they  attacked  on  the  right 
flank,  presuming  that  our  line  there  was  very 
weak.  But  fortunately  we  had  a  great  part 
of  the  Sixth  Army  on  our  left  flank,  so 
that  when  they  attacked  there  they  were 
flanked  by  the  Sixth  Army  and  the  English. 
They  then  began  to  draw  reinforcements 
from  the  center  to  help  their  right  flank, 
until  their  line  became  thinned  at  this  pivotal 
98 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

point.  It  was  then  that  the  genius  of  Gen- 
eral Foch  showed  itself,  for  he .  ordered  us 
to  cut  through  the  German  center.  This 
we  did,  dividing  the  entire  attacking  German 
army.  It  was  then  that  the  Germans  had 
to  withdraw  and  re-form,  and  when  they  re- 
treated precipitately  they  found  themselves 
running  back  to  their  own  big  guns,  which 
they  were  unable  to  bring  up.  They  rested 
themselves  beside  these  guns,  dug  a  hole  in 
the  ground,  and  started  trench-warfare." 

From  that  moment  on  the  western  front 
the  German  army  ceased  to  be  a  conquering 
army,  and  each  step  that  the  French  soldier 
has  driven  back  the  Boche  soldier  the  morale 
of  the  German  soldier  has  weakened  and  the 
strength  and  determination  of  the  French 
soldier  to  win  a  complete  victory  over  his 
adversary  has  increased. 

It  is  my  desire  to  show  in  a  short,  lucid, 
and  conclusive  way  the  simple  and  direct 
reasons  why  the  war,  from  the  German  point 
99 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

of  view,  must  cease  in  a  short  time.  To 
reiterate.  We  must  take  a  premise  that  the 
kaiser  is  an  astute  man.  He  therefore 
realizes  that  his  army  on  the  western  front  is 
in  a  precarious  position;  that  it  has  made 
no  advance  since  1916,  and  that  it  has  been 
driven  back  mile  after  mile.  The  emperor 
knows  that  during  the  last  year  at  Chemin 
des  Dames,  October  £3,  1917,  where  I  was 
myself,  three  months  previous  to  this  he  had 
withdrawn  from  the  eastern  front  three  hun- 
dred thousand  of  the  cream  of  the  German 
army  and  placed  them  at  this  the  nearest 
point  to  Paris;  he  knows  that  the  French 
army  drove  this  much-vaunted  corps  back 
ten  miles,  from  October  23  to  October  88. 
He  knows  that  his  great  and  glorious  army 
was  absolutely  routed ;  that  he  lost  a  comple- 
ment of  fifty  thousand  men  in  five  days ;  that 
the  whole  plateau  of  the  Aisne  and  the 
Chemin  des  Dames  and  the  fortress  of  Mal- 
maison,  which  he  had  said  were  impregnable 
100 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

and  which  he  had  held  for  two  solid  years, 
were  irretrievably  lost,  and  that  this  won- 
derful machine  of  his  was  simply  cut  to 
pieces.  He  knows  that  the  week  previous  to 
this,  at  Verdun,  the  French  went  out  and 
took  Hill  No.  304,  driving  another  of  his 
marvellous  divisions  back  seven  miles  and  de- 
stroying a  complement  of  thousands ,  of 
Boches.  He  knows  that  the  wounded,  the 
men  on  leave  who  have  been  returning  to  the 
cities  of  Germany,  have  been  saying  to  their 
fathers,  mothers,  sisters,  wives,  and  brothers, 
"  By  God,  we  can't  stand  this  any  longer ! 
Every  time  the  French  attack  they  advance. 
Their  artillery  is  simply  hell  and  we  can't 
stand  it." 

Many  German  prisoners  have  letters  from 
their  fathers  and  wives  and  sisters,  all  of 
them  expressing  a  horror  of  the  war  contin- 
uing longer,  and  in  some  instances  they  touch 
upon  their  dire  necessity  and  great  priva- 
tions. 

101 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

The  Kaiser  knows  that  this  is  the  direct 
reason  for  the  civil  uprisings,  for  the  social- 
istic uprisings,  for  the  labor  uprisings 
throughout  Germany.  He  knows  that  if  you 
have  a  conquering  army,  you  have  a  civilian 
population  which  is  peaceful,  happy,  and  ex- 
ultant; and  he  knows  that  with  a  defeated 
army,  which  he  has  now  on  the  western  front, 
an  army  which  to-night  is  being  harassed 
and  injured  by  an  army  scarcely  five  months 
old,  the  American  army,  the  great  American 
artillery,  he  knows  that  this  is  the  forerunner 
of  a  peace  which  he  must  shortly  make. 
Why  is  it,  with  German  propaganda  ram- 
pant in  France,  with  scoundrels  like  Caillaux 
unhung,  with  the  streets  of  Paris  strewn  with 
German  gold,  that  the  civilian  population 
of  France  does  not  rise  as  they  are  do- 
ing in  Germany  at  the  present  time  ?  France 
has  changed  three  cabinets.  Is  there  any 
one  so  dull  of  vision,  so  halt  and  lame  of  un- 
derstanding, that  he  cannot  visualize  the 
102 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

Machiavellian  hand  of  the  seditious  Ger- 
man? Why  is  it  that  there  are  not  to-day, 
as  there  have  been  in  the  past,  uprisings 
throughout  France?  It  is  because  the 
French  army  is  now  a  conquering  army. 
The  German  emperor  knows  that,  and  you 
may  rest  assured  that  if  to-night  this  much- 
vaunted  German  army  should  drive  the 
French  back  eight  or  ten  miles  into  their 
own  country  you  would  hear  rumblings  of  a 
revolution  along  the  boulevards  of  Paris,  in 
the  streets  of  Soissons  and  Nancy,  through- 
out the  country  lanes  of  Neuilly  St.  Front, 
and  in  all  those  picturesque  and  beautiful 
villages  nestling  in  the  valleys  of  France. 
Again  we  must  grant  the  intelligence  of 
the  emperor. 

What  are  the  facts  that  present  them- 
selves to  the  kaiser's  view  to-night?  The 
German  army,  the  German  people,  have  lost 
a  great  number  in  killed  and  in  wounded. 
Out  of  two  thousand  prisoners  whom  I  saw 
103 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

at  Chemin  des  Dames  in  October,  I  didn't 
see  one  who  looked  as  if  he  had  ever  used  a 
razor  on  his  face.  They  were  conscripted 
striplings,  forced  by  this  military  fist  to  be 
fodder  for  that  wonderful  French  artillery, 
for  those  unsatiated  guns  which  are  hungry 
to  rend  and  tear  apart  and  devour  the  en- 
trails of  the  German.  He  knows  that  the 
French  people,  the  English,  Italian,  Ru- 
manian, and  Russian  peoples,  all  save  the 
Japanese,  have  lost  many  men  in  killed  and 
wounded,  and  as  he  sits  in  contemplation, 
fearful  of  the  inevitable  end  which  he  cannot 
fail  to  see,  as  he  sits  to-night  looking  into 
the  fire  and  sees  passing  before  him  the 
youth  of  his  country,  babies  one  might 
say,  taken  from  their  mothers'  apron- 
strings  and  scarcely  able  to  hold  a  gun;  as 
he  sees  this  procession  of  pale-faced,  under- 
fed youths  marching  through  the  flame,  sud- 
denly a  log  drops,  the  flames  leap  high  in 
the  air  and  a  picture  presents  itself  in  the 
104 


•    ,  • 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

bounding,  leaping  tongues  of  fire,  a  vision 
which  throws  into  his  heart,  not  the  fear  of 
God,  but  the  fear  of  man,  the  American  man. 
I  have  taken  newspapers  from  many  pris- 
oners and  wounded,  Frankfort  and  Berlin 
papers,  but  never  have  I  seen  a  mention  of 
the  Americans  or  the  American  army.  And 
it  is  this  ignorance,  this  darkness  in  which 
he  has  kept  his  army  concerning  the  Amer- 
icans, that  is  going  to  tend  more  to  his  down- 
fall and  the  downfall  of  his  army  than  any 
other  one  factor.  As  he  sits  watching  the 
blazing  tongues,  he  sees  not  four  or  five  mil- 
lion boys  and  old  men,  but  he  sees  an  Amer- 
ican army  of  ten  million  young  men,  fresh 
men,  daring  men,  courageous  men,  an  army 
of  the  cleanest,  finest  youth  of  the  entire 
civilized  or  uncivilized  world.  He  sees  men 
with  fine  boots,  warm  stockings,  good  under- 
clothing, heavy  overcoats,  and  the  finest 
rapid-fire  guns  and  the  greatest  artillery  in 
the  world,  men  with  plenty  of  food  in  their 
105 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

stomachs,  with  the  finest  physicians,  medi- 
cines, and  ambulances  that  money  can  buy; 
and  back  of  this  great  army  of  exultant, 
daring,  magnificent  youth,  men  between  the 
ages  of  twenty-one  and  thirty-one,  he  sees 
the  hand  of  one  hundred  and  ten  million  peo- 
ple of  America.  He  sees  the  wealth  of  the 
greatest,  richest  country  in  the  world  stand- 
ing as  a  background  to  this  new,  consecrated 
army. 

Can  you  conceive  that  this  man,  this  intel- 
ligence, is  going  to  permit  this  army  to  ex- 
ist; that  he  is  going  to  see  the  three  or  four 
or  five  hundred  thousand  troops  we  now  have 
in  France  grow  to  be  the  greatest  army  in  the 
world,  with  ten  million  young  men  in  it ;  that 
he  is  going  to  allow  this  American  army  to 
grow  and  increase  by  permitting  the  war  to 
continue  a  day  longer  than  it  is  absolutely 
necessary?  He  knows  full  well  that  if  this 
war  goes  on  two,  three,  four,  or  five  years 
America  will  have  the  greatest  army  and 
106 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

navy  in  the  world,  and  that  each  hour  he 
permits  this  war  to  continue  he  is  fostering 
and  helping  the  Americans  to  build  up  the 
greatest  military  system  in  the  world.  No 
one  could  be  so  mentally  slothful  as  to  believe 
that  he  wishes  such  a  thing  to  be  consum- 
mated. Besides  being  astute,  his  imperial 
highness  is  a  good  charlatan,  and  there  is 
little  question  that  by  the  deftness  of  his 
brush  he  has  been  able  to  paint  a  picture  to 
his  people  which  they  have  either  believed 
freely  or  been  forced  to  accept.  Does  it 
seem  credible  that  he  dare  tell  the  world, 
presumably  a  month  before  he  is  going  to  at- 
tack, that  there  is  to  be  a  great  German  of- 
fensive on  the  western  front?  The  French, 
English,  American,  and  Italian  newspapers 
all  print  this  "  news  "  in  headlines ;  it  is  com- 
mon property.  If  Judge  Gary,  the  chair- 
man of  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation, 
has  decided  that  he  wished  to  get  control  of 
the  Bethlehem  Steel  Company,  would  he 
107 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

call  up  all  the  newspapers  and  Mr.  Schwab, 
and  say :  "  To-morrow  I  am  going  to  start 
to  get  control  of  your  company  "  ? 

If  a  band  of  robbers  were  going  to  break 
into  J.  P.  Morgan  &  Co.,  can  any  one  con- 
ceive that  they  would  call  up  the  bank  and 
advise  them  of  their  intention,  practically 
stating  the  day  and  hour? 

So  can  any  one  imagine  if  the  kaiser  was 
going  to  make  this  offensive  on  the  western 
front,  he  would  first  tell  everybody  about  it, 
thereby  precluding  and  absolutely  injuring 
any  attack  that  he  might  see  fit  to  make? 

There  will  be  no  attack  on  the  western 
front  by  the  Germans.  The  German  army 
does  not  want  to  attack;  they  have  not  at- 
tacked for  nearly  a  year.  They  have  only 
counter-attacked,  and  the  reason  for  that 
has  been  that  when  you  run  a  man  down  into 
a  cellar  and  he  can't  get  out,  whether  he  is  a 
brave  man  or  a  coward,  he  will  fight  in  the 
108 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

corner  for  his  life.     That  is  the  sole  reason 
for  the  Boche  counter-attack. 

The  Russian  situation,  which  to-day  holds 
the  attention  of  the  entire  world,  was  known 
to  the  most  astute  and  clever  diplomats 
some  four  months  ago,  as  it  was  also  known 
to  the  leading  strategic  generals  in  the  vari- 
ous armies.  The  kaiser  as  early  as  Septem- 
ber moved  his  chosen  divisions  from  the  east- 
ern to  the  western  front,  particularly  in 
front  of  Verdun  and  along  the  Chemin  des 
Dames.  This  is  not  a  conjecture  or  a  guess 
on  my  part,  because  I  took  my  knife  and  cut 
off  buttons  and  shoulder-straps  from  many 
German  prisoners,  showing  the  regiment  of 
the  crown  prince  and  other  divisions  of  for- 
mer note. 

One  Boche  turned  white  with  fear  as  I  ap- 
proached him  with  my  knife.  He  said,  "  My 
God,  is  he  going  to  cut  my  throat?  "  Here 
109 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

is    an    insight    into    German    treatment    of 
French  prisoners. 

While  the  binoculars  of  public  gaze  have 
been,  and  are  turned  upon  Russia,  the  far- 
seeing  diplomat,  using  a  periscope,  is  direct- 
ing it  upon  Japan.  Japan  is  our  ally  and 
our  friend.  Japan  owes  much  to  America. 
Those  Americans  who  were  present  at 
the  treaty  of  Portsmouth,  like  myself, 
realize  this,  as  well  as  those  whom  Japan 
sent  to  arrange  a  peace  between  Russia 
and  herself.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  that 
when  two  men  have  been  at  each  other's 
throats  they  can  suddenly  become  allies  and 
great  friends.  Since  this  is  not  true  of  the 
individual,  it  is  not  true  of  a  nation.  Japan 
has  no  love  for  Russia,  nor  has  Russia  any 
affection  for  Japan.  Therefore  it  is  scarcely 
credible  that  Japan  will  allow  Germany  to 
feast  and  grow  fat  upon  the  Russian  bear, 
while  she  sits  with  hungry  eyes  looking  at  oil 
and  coal  and  mineral  wealth  being  taken  over 
110 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

by  the  Hun.  Japan  has  been  our  ally,  but 
she  has  been  an  amazingly  placid  one.  Why 
is  it  that  Japan,  of  all  the  allied  nations,  has 
lost  scarcely  one  drop  of  her  sacred  blood, 
when  for  three  years  and  a  half  it  has  been 
gushing  from  the  arteries  of  the  world? 
Japan  is  conceded  to  have  extraordinarily 
diplomatic  strategists.  Her  wise  men  saw 
that  it  was  only  a  matter  of  time  before  Rus- 
sia, with  her  internal  dissensions,  her  social- 
ists, anarchists,  and  her  ignorant  population, 
would  disintegrate  before  the  Germans.  She 
realized  that  she  must  conserve  herself  to 
protect  and  guard  and  police  the  East  not 
only  for  her  own  sake,  but  for  the  sake  of  the 
civilized  Allied  world.  Japan  has  known 
full  well  the  Hun  desire  in  the  Pacific  and  in 
the  East,  and  if  she  should  allow  matters  to 
so  develop  themselves  in  Russia  according 
to  the  ideas  of  the  Germans,  Japan  knows 
that  her  position  there  would  be  menaced  and 
that  the  utmost  gravity  and  seriousness  of 
111 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

her  internal  interests  would  put  her  in  a 
position  which  she  could  not  afford  to  ignore 
and  which  she  will  not  ignore.  The  Japanese 
wish  to  throw  an  army  into  Siberia;  they 
wish  the  cooperation  and  acquiescence  of  the 
President  of  the  United  States.  There 
seems  to  be  no  reason  why  the  President  of 
the  United  States  or  the  people  of  the  United 
States  should  accept  any  responsibility  for 
Japan's  sending  an  army  into  Russia,  any 
more  than  Japan  has  accepted  the  responsi- 
bility of  our  sending  American  troops  to 
France.  Responsibility  should  and  must 
rest  upon  Japan,  and  it  is  only  for  the  sake 
of  a  worldwide  morale  that  Japan  at  this  mo- 
ment makes  such  a  request  of  the  President 
of  the  United  States.  I  recall  at  Ports- 
mouth an  idea  was  then  being  promul- 
gated for  the  invasion  of  Siberia,  an  inva- 
sion that  would  have  taken  in  territory 
amounting  to  between  twelve  and  eighteen 
hundred  miles  by  rail  to  the  Pacific  Coast, 
112 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

and  I  believe  that  if  it  had  not  been  for  the 
Treaty  of  Portsmouth,  this  would  certainly 
have  been  attempted.  Two  routes  were 
suggested  at  the  time,  one  by  way  of  Corea 
across  part  of  the  Sea  of  Japan  from 
Shimoneseki  to  Funsan  and  so  on  by  rail  up 
to  Mukden,  the  trans-Siberian  railway  mak- 
ing good  time  from  Tsushima  Strait  to 
Harbin;  the  other  route  was  by  Port  Ar- 
thur, with  the  trans-Siberian  railroad  at 
Harbin.  Though  the  last  is  the  longest 
route,  we  know  that  Japan  has  large  stores 
at  Port  Arthur,  and  this  would  be  an  ad- 
vantage. Of  course  the  shortest  route  is  by 
way  of  Corea. 

While  most  of  the  unthinking  men  of  the 
world  have  whispered  to  themselves  that 
Japan  has  done  but  a  small  part  toward 
winning  this  war,  the  few  who  are  far- 
sighted  realize  that  Japan  foresaw  this  Rus- 
sian situation,  that  instead  of  rushing  her 
troops  into  France  she  has  held  them  in  re- 
113 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

serve  for  this  purpose  which  is  so  imminent, 
namely,  the  salvation  of  the  East,  the  stop- 
ping of  the  aggrandizement  of  the  Hun,  and 
the  great  benefit  to  be  derived  thereby  for  the 
Allies.  There  are  those  who  distrust  Japan, 
those  who  are  always  j  ingoing  concerning  the 
"  yellow  peril,"  who  attribute  selfish  motives 
in  Japan's  attitude  toward  Russia.  I  can- 
not see  what  difference  that  would  make. 
Better  Japan's  selfishness  and  aggrandize- 
ment than  Germany's.  But  that  is  not 
the  case.  It  is  well  known  that  the  Jap- 
anese Government  has  said  that  it  does  not 
wish  any  permanent  occupancy  and  that  it  is 
not  seeking  any  terrain  aggrandizement  that 
in  any  way  would  affect  Russia,  and  we  know 
that  there  have  been  many  opportunities  of- 
fered to  Japan  whereby  she  could  have  taken 
many  selfish  advantages  of  the  situation  and 
has  not  done  do.  So  that  those  who  are 
close  students  of  the  situation  do  not  believe 
that  Japan  at  this  moment  will  be  inconsist- 
114 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

ent.  Japan  asks  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  for  moral  support.  Japan 
does  not  wish  any  American  troops  to  aid 
her ;  in  fact,  it  would  be  regarded  by  her  own 
people  as  a  sign  that  Japan's  motives  were 
distrustful. 

The  kaiser  knows  that  he  has  been  unable 
with  the  so-called  greatest  military  organiza- 
tion in  the  world,  during  1914,  1915,  1916, 
and  1917,  to  defeat  the  English  and  French 
on  the  western  front.  He  knows  that  not 
only  has  he  been  unable  to  conquer,  but  that 
his  army  has  been  driven  back,  humiliated 
and  defeated.  How  can  he  therefore  hope, 
having  been  unable  to  defeat  the  French  and 
English  ?  How  can  he  be  so  imbued  with  his 
own  egotism  as  to  suppose  that  he  can  win, 
with  the  American  army  in  addition  and 
Japan  now  for  the  first  time  taking  an  active 
part  in  the  war?  How  can  he  be  so  eaten 
with  conceit  as  to  believe  that  his  army,  al- 
115 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

ready  defeated  by  France  and  England,  can 
withstand  this  new  consecrated  American 
army?  I  have  talked  with  the  finest  intelli- 
gences in  France  —  English,  French,  Colo- 
nial —  and  since  arriving  in  America  I  have 
done  likewise,  and  there  is  not  one  far- 
sighted,  clear-visioned  man  who  does  not  say 
that  this  emperor,  self-styled  the  right  arm 
of  God  Almighty,  is  withered  nearly  to  the 
shoulder. 

In  conclusion  the  writer  wishes  to  sum  up 
the  situation  as  it  presents  itself  to-day  and 
as  it  will  present  itself  in  the  future. 

First,  the  German  army  is  no  longer  an 
offensive  army. 

Second,  the  German  civilian  population  is 
in  a  spirit  of  great  unrest,  due  mainly  to 
their  lack  of  confidence  in  their  army. 

Third,  the  German   army  has  only  been 

able  to  hold  ground  in  the  last  year  when 

greatly   outnumbering   the    French,   though 

they  could  not  even  do  this  at  the  Marne,  as 

116 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

they  had  nine  hundred  thousand  profes- 
sional soldiers  against  seven  hundred  thou- 
sand French  amateurs,  and  were  decisively 
cut  to  pieces  and  made  to  withdraw. 

Fourth,  the  German  army  has  lost  its 
morale.  Any  German  prisoner  will  tell  you, 
as  they  have  told  me,  that  the  German  army 
is  broken  and  tired  and  wants  to  go  home. 
The  Boche  would  rather  be  taken  prisoner 
than  attack. 

Fifth,  the  objective  of  the  German  army, 
Paris,  grows  miles  farther  each  month  from 
their  grasp. 

Sixth,  Japan  has  now  entered  the  conflict 
with  a  great,  warlike  spirit. 

Seventh,  Germany  will  not  be  allowed  by 
Japan  to  feed  upon  Russian  bear-meat. 
The  Japanese  want  it  for  themselves  and  the 
Allies,  head,  hide  and  carcass. 

Eighth,  the  German  army  at  last  knows 
and  realizes  that  the  American  army  is  at- 
tacking it,  and  it  is  beginning  to  under- 
117 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

stand  that  which  the  world  already  knows  — 
•that  American  artillery  is  second  to  none  in 
the  world.  Also  that  the  President  of  the 
United  States  is  determined  to  wage  this  war 
to  what  he  and  the  American  people  consider 
a  proper  peace. 

Ninth,  each  day  that  the  German  emperor 
permits  the  war  to  continue  increases  Ameri- 
can efficiency,  at  the  same  time  inflicting 
death  and  privation  upon  the  German  army 
and  the  German  people. 

Tenth,  the  German  emperor  knows  that  the 
fresh,  strong,  virile,  well-clad,  courageous 
American  army  will  destroy  the  worn  out 
Boche  army,  made  up  of  old  men  and  boys, 
ill-cared  for  and  tired  of  the  struggle.  It 
will  destroy  it  whenever  and  wherever  it  meets 
it,  and  he  knows  that  America  is  seeking  en- 
gagements hourly. 

Eleventh,  the  English  army  has  for  the 
first  time  greatly  lengthened  its  line  on  the 
front  below  St.  Quentin. 
118 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

This  spring  will  see  the  greatest  Allied 
offensive  since  the  war  began.  It  will  see 
the  German  army  driven  back  along  the 
whole  front,  with  a  loss  of  many  hundred 
thousand  Boches.  This,  in  turn,  will  have 
its  effect  upon  the  civilian  population  in 
Germany,  the  people  who  did  not  seek  the 
war  and  who  do  not  wish  it  to  continue 
longer;  who  will  not  permit  their  husbands, 
sons,  and  brothers  to  be  further  mutilated. 
The  women  of  Germany,  who  to-day  are  till- 
ing the  soil,  scrubbing  their  floors,  cooking, 
nursing,  and  caring  for  their  children,  these 
millions  of  women  are  crying  out  in  anguish 
of  soul  and  body,  "  We  have  given  you  all, 
oh!  Kaiser,  and  you  have  failed,  you  have 
failed!  Now  you  must  give  us  back  our 
men,  before  they  are  brought  back  legless, 
armless,  mutilated,  to  make  the  care  of  them 
another  added  burden." 

It  is  a  voice  even  he  who  believes  himself  to 
be  a  relative  of  the  crucified  Christ  must 
119 


BATTERING  THE  BOCHE 

listen  to  and  heed;  it  is  the  wail  of  a  deter- 
mined people  crying  out  in  their  desolation, 
poverty,  deprivation,  and  anguish  that  they 
will  no  longer  be  the  human  catspaw  to 
satiate  the  vanity  of  the  emperor  of  Prussia, 
the  Messenger  of  Mars. 


THE    END 


120 


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DEC  30  1931 
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